‘How to make people vote’ - be different

Polly Toynbee writes in The Guardian today about ‘How to make people vote’ and it’s a question that the Union has pondered and no doubt the election candidates are pondering even more.

The main thrust of the article is that voters want a choice. Everyone’s competing for the politically correct middle ground, but actually if people had a clear choice turnout would go up. We don’t all want to vote for three Mr or Mrs X’s, we want a Y and a Z to pick from.

The lesson for candidates, pin your colours to a mast and make voters believe that you can climb to the top of it. Don’t just follow the herd.

The Guardian: Ministers back voting reforms

With the news that the government is tabling a motion to switch to the Alternative Transferable Vote (ATV) election system, we’ll be taking a look over the next week at how the UCLan Students’ Union system of Single Transferable Vote (STV) works, the drama it’s caused in the past, and assessing whether it’s the best method available for student elections.

Pluto Issue 191 put back to allow election coverage

Due to the early falling of Easter and the term dates being structured around it then the next issue of Pluto, the student newspaper, has been put back until Monday April 21.

It was due to be released on Friday April 18 but with the election results coming out on that day it would mean one of the most important events on the Union calender would be missed. The election result is expected to run on the front page.

The usual coverage of candidates will be run via this blog and we’ll be keeping it regularly maintained in the build-up to voting week and of course during voting week itself.