Project Trust: Making the Difference, Home and Away

Getting angry about politics is a relatively new hobby of mine. For the past nine months I have been volunteering for the charity Project Trust in Tokyo where, due to the nature of media in the country, political discussions don't come about very often. A couple of days ago, I was telling my friends from home about my proxy application for the upcoming general election and was met with a response triggering in me a deeply heartbroken sigh as I mourned for our generation. "What difference is that one vote going to make anyway?"

The occasionally pretentious English Literature student that I am, my response to comments disregarding the impact an individual can make will always be the same.

"All my efforts will amount to nothing more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?" (Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell).

Her comment is not what this blog post is about. I was, however, inspired. 

Maybe my one vote by itself isn't making the difference, but what about all the others in the same position as me? There are around 250 Project Trust volunteers all around the world, do our 250 votes matter? (Not to forget the thousands of other British people living and travelling abroad).

I took to a fair number of my fellow volunteers and asked if they were aware of how they could vote on the 8th June and, much to my deep despondency, I didn't receive a single 'yes'.

The importance of taking part in electoral processes cannot be understated, particularly for young people. Roughly 40% of 18-24 year olds voted in the last general election on the 7th May 2015, as opposed to 80% of 55-65 year olds. 75% of young voters voted leave in the referendum, but nearly half didn't cast a vote at all; apathy is the most dangerous threat to democracy and freedom that there is.There are so many reasons why young people have to vote, amongst them

soaring youth unemployment, a job market saturated with unpaid internships, drastic changes to university tuition fees, as well as severe cuts to youth services and youth mental health services.

This snap election called by Theresa May - given the current political climate - will determine the entire future of the UK and its place in the world. 

I'm now addressing Project Trust volunteers, and any other British citizens who are travelling outside of the UK. You can still vote. It is a human right to vote. Use it. It is not as tricky a process as you might think (although trickier for some of you than others). One of my sisters works for the Electoral Processes Department at my local council and has offered her advice on how you can make your voice heard.

For the majority of you, I would encourage voting by proxy. This means allocating a trusted person to cast your vote on your behalf. A form must be received by your local council eleven days before the date of the specified vote. In this case, the General Election (08/06/17). You print the form from here and post it to the address, which you can find by typing your post code into the search bar at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, postage from overseas is not free. There is an alternative and quicker method. Print and fill in the form, then scan it into a PDF and email it to your council with the email found via the search engine. If you have a smartphone, you can even get apps which can scan paper into PDF files with ease. I have been told by my council representative that this should be acceptable for everyone; it is how I applied for my proxy and it worked for me.

If you want to vote directly, without a third party, you can vote by post. Print the document here, post it to the address of your local council given on the website. There may be complications here as the deadline to apply to vote by post at the UK general election on Thursday 8 June is 5pm (GBT) on Tuesday 23rd May. If you can scan the document and email it, you may be able to get it done in time.

There are other obstacles I am very aware of, such as the lack of access to technology in some of the more remote projects. Many of you do not have access to internet, let alone printers, and if you are at one of these projects, kudos to you for being able to access this blog post. How are you doing that? Did you know we're in the middle of another general election? Yes, it is a joke. Yes, it's a very exhausting joke at that. First the EU referendum, then Trump, now this. You hadn't heard about the election of President Trump? I envy you.

Anyway, the important things in a postal application is that the council knows where the person is registered, and where they want their postal vote to be delivered to. Also, a proxy or postal application cannot be verified without your date of birth and the signature of the elector; this is what the council will use to verify that the vote is not fraudulent. So long as this information is on anything, I have been assured that there is no reason why this would not be accepted; the forms are very basic and simply for convenience. If you can access a pen and paper and can post the same information, this should be acceptable. It should include:

• Your surname
• First names (in full)
• Current address and post code
• Daytime telephone or mobile number including the country code (optional)
• Email address (optional)
• The full address of where you are registered to vote in the UK and post code
• The name of your allocated proxy
• Their relationship to you (if any)
• Their full address and post code
• The reason why you wish to vote by proxy (you will be overseas on the date of the election)
• The date of the election you wish for your proxy to represent you on (08/06/2017)
• Your date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY)
• Signature
• The date of your application (today's date)

If you want to vote by post, you may be a little too late for this method (I am certain it is too late), as posting a proxy vote from across the globe is already pushing it. For that, I apologise for not posting this sooner. If you can scan it and send it as an email, you may be able to get away with this, should you be willing to risk it. The information you need to include is:

• Your surname
• First names (in full)
• Current address and post code
• Daytime telephone or mobile number including the country code (optional)
• Email address (optional)
• The full address of where you are registered to vote in the UK and post code
• The date of the election you wish to vote on (08/06/2017)
• The alternative address you wish for your ballot paper to be sent to
• The reason why you wish for your ballot to be sent to the alternative address
• Your date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY)
• Signature
• The date of your application (today's date)

I am not writing this to tell you how to vote and so I will cast no opinion on here (that's what my Facebook and Twitter are for). If you're not sure who to vote for, my advice - if you can - would be to take to one of the many quizzes that have been cropping up to help you determine your political compass. The most popular of these is isidewith, touching on the important topics: social, environmental, and economic issues, domestic policy, healthcare, education, electoral processes, crime, foreign policy, transportation, immigration, and science (don't worry, it isn't as long as it sounds, you will be asked questions you may not have thought about before and the results may really interest you).

My last piece of advice is this. If you have not yet registered to vote, the deadline to do so is imminent. Please please please please register to vote in a couple of simple steps here. The deadline to register for the general election is 11:59pm  (GMT) on 22 May. Naturally, if you have already registered to vote, you do not need to register again.

Your vote matters. By volunteering with Project Trust you have proven that you know what it means to be a global citizen; you are an individual who has an active impact on the larger society. Be aware of the impact one person can make. We aim to make that difference, at home and away.

Liz Smith

Japan Volunteer 16/17