Hi Everybody!

Here is England a poll was released today from a newspaper, The Telegraph, which claimed that only 42% of first time voters at the age of 18 would vote. This seems to me to be ridiculously low, so i wanted to ask:

1. Will you vote as soon as you can, even if it just becasue yoiu support the party, not the single candidate?

2. Why would you vote?

3. What do you think of protest abstaining?

4. Do you feel that many teens would vote? Many of us here would, bit we are clearly more interested in politics than most people.

I can't wait until I'm old enough to vote.

I'm not old enough, but if I could, I would

1. I don't know yet. I'm going to be 16 in 11 days so I have a little more than 2 years to vote...even more than that to vote for President. I'm not really into politics, honestly. It's just not my thing. I like to debate some of the big topics (abortion, gay marriage, etc.) but I don't keep up with what the parties/candidates are doing or anything like that. It's just not one of my interests. However, I'm currently taking my required civics course this semester and I'm becoming more involved. I think I will at least vote, even if I do "eenie-meenie-minie-moe" down the list. I can already tell you I'm going to list as independent...I'm halfway in between both parties and, while I'm definitely more democrat, I'm too much republican to register as democrat.

2. I don't know...which I guess is the reason why I don't know if I'll vote or not.

3. I'm politically ignorant, to be honest, and I have never heard that term before.

4. If you'd asked me this last year, I would've said no. But after the Presidential election and experiencing my civics class for the past 3 months, I have come to realize that there are many many people at my school who care about politics and would've voted if they were old enough---those that were, I think did. At least to my knowledge.

This doesnt answer any of your questions, but...
I thing the low percentage is a direct result of teens being uninformed. The importance of voting and being politically active is muffled by the media and its friends.

A say in the government.. something many have worked years to achieve, yet many more take it for granted.

1. I'm 17, and I plan to vote as soon as I'm able, yes. I would never go for anyone just because I support a party. I'm proud to be of no party. I would always choose everyone I elect based on who they are and who they're running against.
2. I will vote because, no matter how small it is, I will be making a difference in my society. I want to make the world a better place, and that's a start.
3. I think protest abstaining is stupid. If you don't like the candidates, write in a new choice. Vote for something else. It's not protesting if you do absolutely nothing.
4. From what I've seen, yes. A lot would vote. But I've only seen a small, small part of the world.