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Not voting? Tell the world you're notapathetic.com

Election sniffles continue

Election 2005 Is all the election madness is getting to you already? (Have you no stamina?). Maybe you're not overly enamoured with the political process in Blighty, and think politicians have the listening capacity of the average brick wall and feel like boycotting the whole thing.

Maybe you don't like the candidates in your constituency, or maybe you are part of the 20 per cent of the population that intends to vote, but doesn't get to it on the day.

Some people will say you are apathetic - perhaps you are. But maybe your non-voting is an act of minor protest. Whatever your reason, notapathetic.com would like to hear from you.

Launched by the founders of mySociety, the site says it wants to offer people a place to tell the world why they don't intend to vote. mySociety's Tom Steinberg acknowledged that the site was quite different to some of the group's other projects.

He blogged as follows: "mySociety projects are mainly focussed on improving the quality of civic, community and political life between elections. But back in late 2003 James Crabtree suggested a site which would give a voice to the 40 per cent of citizens who won't be turning out to vote."

One would assume that those of Her Majesty's subjects who are loathe to vote are also unlikely to click their way through to a site to explain why.

Nevertheless, quite a few non-voters have so far registered their reasons for avoiding the ballot box. Reasons range from living in a safe seat, through having no faith in any political party, to a real reluctance to endorse current Labour party policies.

Plenty of people advocate spoiling the ballot paper, as a means of protest, to avoid "giving out the message that Britain is a lazy apathetic country", as one underage non-voter writes.

Even if you are a committed voter, and like nothing more than the chance to register your views with an X, you might find it an interesting read. ®

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