Encouraging Young Voters

What I knew before?

I knew that to vote in the general election you have to be 18 years old or above and that you cannot turn up and vote if you haven't registered. I was also aware that there's a very small percentage of young people who actually vote because they don't care, don't know what each parties policies are or they feel as though, as a young person, their vote wouldn't be able to change the country. 

What was the task?
The college are starting a campaign to encourage young people to vote and know more about what it means to vote in an election. They will be using some of the posters that we designed as part of the campaign as using the NUS campaign to get young people to cote that have the slogans 'Your vote matters, make sure you're in' to teach young people the importance of registering to vote and 'These people want you to vote for them, this is what they're saying. 

I took a survey to find out which parties policies I appealed to the most, here are my results: 

The campaign is aiming to simplify the voting process and break it down so that young people aren't automatically put off and bored and so that they understand what their options are when it comes to making a vote. I found out some of labours policies that may interest young people, policies that they can relate to and understand easily:

• Guaranteed GP appointments within 48 hours, or the same day for the people who need it. 
• Making mental health treatment an NHS policy and to make sure that all NHS staff have mental health training. 
• Improvements to poor quality apprenticeships so that the final qualifications are more valuable.

The  http://www.labour.org.uk website is very helpful at informing about the Labour policies. They are written as simple points so they're quick to read and not over complicated. When looking at policies linked to a specific topic e.g. schools, the website gives you the option to look at policies on related topics e.g. young people. This is a really helpful feature for young people as they can get quick access to what they're interested in.

What I know now? 
I know know that you are able to register to vote from the age of 16, although you must still be 18 to got, the fact that you've registered shows the amount of young people who are interested in voting so that the parties know who their target audience are when it comes to creating future policies.
In the last general election only 44% of young people who were eligible to vote actually voted.