Jen Dodds: 5 reasons to register to vote (BSL)

I haven’t written anything for Limping Chicken for a while, because I’ve been busy, but recently something happened that spurred me into action again.

To watch Jen’s article in BSL, click play below:

I’m quite old – I’m 42, if you must know – and I’ve been voting since I was 18 years old. I kind of thought that everyone over the age of 18 was registered to vote and, like me, put their X in a box every election. But, no. A friend of mine who’s the same age as me told me that he’s only just registered to vote!

So, that was a bit of a surprise; it made me realise that there must be lots of you out there who don’t vote. Let me give you five reasons why I think you should…

1) People died for you to be able to vote.

If you ever feel like you really can’t be bothered to vote, it might be an idea to remember that people actually died so that you can do so. Many years ago, the suffragettes led a fierce campaign for women’s right to vote. They were so desperate to get attention for their campaign that some of them threw themselves in front of horses and died.

They won in the end. So, all women should vote (and men too)!

2) If you don’t vote, you can’t complain. 

Fed up with all the cuts and the state of the UK in general? If you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain about it. Simple.

3) Less deaf votes – less deaf influence.

Every deaf person who votes means that one more deaf person has influenced the result. If no deaf people vote, the result will only be what hearing people want.

So, if you want to influence things, please vote.

4) Don’t like any of them? Still vote! 

Perhaps you look at your voting paper and haven’t a clue who to vote for? Or maybe you don’t want to vote for any of the candidates? It’s still worth voting, though, because you can make sure you don’t vote for the party that you like the least – one vote for another party takes one vote away from them! Worth thinking about…

5) You CAN make a difference! 

You may be just one voter within millions, but that doesn’t mean your vote isn’t important. In the 2010 general election, the number of people who DIDN’T vote at all was much higher than those who voted for the winning party.

So, please vote! You can make a difference!

How to register to vote:

It’s super easy – just click here (https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote) to register before 22^nd May. All you need to do is fill in a little form, and you’re sorted.

Please vote! You know you want to.

Read and watch in BSL more of Jen’s articles for Limping Chicken by clicking here.

Jen Dodds is a Contributing Editor for The Limping Chicken. When she’s not looking after chickens or children, Jen can be found translating, proofreading and editing stuff over at Team HaDo Ltd (teamhado.com). On Twitter, Jen is @deafpower.