This week I filled in a long, complicated form and spent an exorbitant amount of money posting it to the UK in the hope that the relevant person will receive it in time. I hope that, if they do, it will allow me to vote in the upcoming elections. Of course thanks to the vagaries of both the British and the American postal service systems, this is not a guaranteed outcome.

I want to vote because I am sick of being one of those people who whinges about the government while not having had a say in its choosing. I am 28 years old and have been eligible to vote in national, local and European Union elections for over a decade.

Yet in reality, I have only crossed that box on the voter paper about four times in my life. Meanwhile I read the papers and shake my head as to the parlous state the country is in and mutter under my breath about how Gordon Brown should get OUT.

I was a typical example of the apathetic voter: allowed to vote, gave a toss when it came to talking politics and failed to pull my finger out when it came to actually doing it.

When one brings up the subject of voter apathy, all the usual excuses are trotted out. The young electorate (because they, along with ethnic minorities, have the lowest turnout on election day) are disillusioned with politics. The voting process is unnecessarily complicated. And in these days of modern technology, the old system of canvassing fails to reach its target audience…we’re all too busy playing My Virtual Life to engage with our real ones.

But enough of the excuses. We’re living through a time of intense recession. We’re engaged in two bloody wars that bring a daily loss of life and which we can’t afford to be waging. The gap between rich and poor is growing while literacy levels seem to be shrinking. And we are supposed to be one of the most advanced countries in the West.

If we care anything about what happens to us all, as a country, it is our responsibility to vote. National, local, EU – you name it, we should be getting out there. And yes you could argue that another party in power would have made exactly the same mistakes, but at least if you voted for them you would feel partly responsible.

We have a huge privilege in being able to take part in a democratic system that is accountable and, for the most part, uncorrupted. We don’t live in Zimbabwe, where to vote for the wrong party could mean instant death. We have choice in who our politicians are.

So instead of complaining about them, why don’t we do something about it? Politics affects all of our lives. The taxes we pay, the education we have access to, the wars that are being waged in our name. So if you care about any of these things, get out there and mark that cross on your bit of paper. Then you can feel free to whinge about the government.

Lucy Denyer (currently in Kansas, USA)