Outline some of the factors preventing people from voting in the United Kingdom.

Voter turnout varies for numerous reasons, and we will examine a few of these during this sessions. Firstly, accessibility plays a major role in determining voter turnout. If voting locations cannot be easily accessed by public transport, or lack parking spaces, this may act as a deterrent for people to vote, as they will be required to go out of their way in order to cast their vote. Opening hours for voting stations must also be considered.One method used to counteract this is the existence of alternatives to traditional voting, such as voting by proxy or postal vote. One reason for low turnout may be a lack of information with regards to alternative voting methods - if people are unaware of the possibility to vote by post/proxy and are busy on the election day, they will simply not vote. It could be argued that despite information being provided (often in postal form) to voters, this is often ignored and people are unaware of alternatives.Finally, arguably the most prominent deterrent for voting in the UK is the existence of safe seats in constituencies. The First Past the Post system utilised in the UK is known for excluding minority parties, and therefore if a voter supports a minority party, but lives in a constituency in which Labour (for example) is traditionally always elected, this constitutes a disincentive to vote, as they may believe 'their vote doesn't count'.

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