Voting Counts Urges Registered Voters to Avoid Forming ‘UK’s Largest Party’

Voting Counts, the organisation helping citizens make informed decisions in election campaigns, is warning registered voters to avoid joining The Unheard Third in a new integrated campaign launched ahead of the 2024 UK General Election. 

Created by Brave Spark, The Unheard Third is a new party for disengaged voters – a party that doesn’t want you to join them.

In the last UK General Election in 2019, 33% of registered voters didn’t visit the ballot box – that’s 15.5 million people – a greater number than those who voted for the Conservative Party. These people are represented by The Unheard Third, which would make them the UK’s biggest political party…

We are The Unheard Third. We represent the 33% of registered voters who didn’t vote at the last elections.

And 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 Unheard Third campaign includes a series of eye-catching outdoor ads outlining The Unheard Third’s message and manifesto. Twisting tropes and common phrases from typical political advertising campaign, the work uses headlines such as ‘We don’t want your vote’ and ‘If you don’t vote, you don’t count’, subverting what you’d normally expect from a party rallying for support. Meanwhile pastel colours are used to give the work a contemporary feel and so as to not align with any existing political party.

The work is further 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.

The provocative tone of the campaign is matched by its media strategy, with ads running on outdoor sites close to Westminster, and fly-posters placed around the UK, including at key events such as Glastonbury Festival, giving the campaign a guerilla feel.

Rachael Farrington, founder of Voting Counts, said, “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.”

Juliet McLaren, executive creative director, said, “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.” 

Read the The Unheard Third’s manifesto here: