Panic at the polling station

I am in turmoil. Which way do I vote? I know who I want to win, but I also know who I don’t want to win. This funny old election system means that my heart felt cross could well be wasted in my marginal constituency. I haven’t waited five years to waste my cross.

Listening to my head

I wrote essays at school about tactical voting, but never thought it really existed. Now, if I can square it with my conscience, I might actually vote tactically. The trouble is I don’t know who to trust.

The Daily Mirror has told me today that my constituency is a three-way marginal. A 1.08% swing will see it go to the Tories whilst a 1.37% swing for the Lib Dems will see them take it. I should therefore, according to their advice, vote Labour to withstand the onslaught.

But this is based on figures that are five years old. The Guardian on Saturday told me to vote tactically to stop the Tories and to do this I should vote Lib Dem to keep them out. Based on the polls, there has been a 10% decrease in the support for Labour nationally since 2005 which indicates not such a pretty picture for their 2010 chances in my constituency.

What is more the Lib Dem candidate in my area has put a note through the door (seemingly hand written but identical to the other five that came through the door) telling me it is between them and the Tories. In it he cites the recent council elections which saw Labour poll 10% of the popular vote. In case people like me are a bit slow on the uptake, he has written ‘they can’t win here’ next to the figure.

Following my heart

Voting tactically will mean going against my heart but at least I will be contributing to the outcome I want. But if I do vote tactically, say I have got it wrong and the difference between my preferred candidate winning and not winning is me? I’m not sure I could live with that. Maybe I should just follow Tony’s advice and vote for who I support. Turmoil.