Voting Counts, an organisation helping citizens make informed decisions in election campaigns, is warning registered voters to avoid joining The Unheard Third in a new integrated campaign from Brave Spark ahead of this week’s UK General Election.
‘The Unheard Third’ is supposedly a new party for disengaged voters – a party that doesn’t want people to join it.
In the last UK General Election in 2019, 33% of registered voters didn’t visit the ballot box – 15.5 million people – a greater number than those who voted for the winning Conservative Party.
According to MSQ’s Brave spark the Unheard Third’s manifesto is:
*We believe in apathy, not democracy.
*Our membership is always open, but we don’t want you to join us.
*We want you to have a say. We want you to make a change. We want you to stand up for what you believe in.
*So please. Vote for anyone but us.
The Out of Home campaign is supported by a social media campaign directing people to the Voting Counts website, which provides accessible information and tools to help people get ready to vote, understand elections, navigate British Politics and have their say.
Rachael Farrington, founder of Voting Counts, says: “For the past decade Voting Counts has been working to empower people to exercise their democratic right, but in each election there has been a growing trend that more registered voters choose not to vote at all than vote for any one political party. I hope that through this campaign we can highlight the immense power that those non-voters could have.”
Brave Spark ECD Juliet McLaren says: “A lot of campaigns urge people to register to vote, but few actually consider the overwhelming amount of already-registered voters who opt not to visit a polling station.
“That’s why we came up with this bold anti-recruitment campaign, because we believe it’s important for everyone to participate in the democratic process and reverse what is a startling statistic. By directing to incredible resources like Voting Counts, we hope to give people confidence that, whether they’re a first-time voter or season participant unsure of where their vote should go, support is at hand every step of the way.”
