General Election - vote for your Member of Parliament to help form the national government
Local Election - voting for your local councillor.
By-Election - election for one constituency only, say, if the MP has died or resigned.
Scottish Parliament - choosing your Member of Scottish Parliament. Scotland only.
Welsh Assembly - National Assembly for Wales. Wales only.
Northern Ireland Assembly - currently suspended
European election - each citizen over 18 of each member country of the European Union votes for their Member of the European Parliament.

Ballot = A vote
Candidate = someone standing for election
Coalition = group of political parties joining together
Constituency = the geographical area an MP is responsible for
Constituent = person who lives in the geographical area an MP is responsible for Electorate = all the people who vote in an election.
First Past the Post = the electoral system we use for general elections.
Manifesto = the public policies, ideas and promises a party makes to the electorate before the election.
MP = Member of Parliament. MPs represent everyone in their constituency, even the ones who didn't vote for them. They're based in the House of Commons.
Poll = another name for an election.
Polling station = the place where you vote.
Safe seat = a constituency where there is overwhelming support for one party, where any other party has almost no chance of winning.
Seat = constituency
Secret Ballot = nobody can know who you voted for so there is no chance that you can be intimidated or influenced.

1800 Fewer than 3 adults out of every 100 could vote.
1832 Five adults out of every 100 could vote.
1867 Thirteen adults out of every 100 could vote, but the system was still based on wealth.
1884 Twenty-four adults out of every 100 could vote.
1918 Representation of the People Act. Seventy-five adults out of every 100 could vote.
1928 100 %

There is a lot of discussion about young people being bored with politic and unwilling to get involved.

Voter Turnout Facts

• Fewer than four in ten 18-24 year-olds were estimated to have voted at the last general election, (compared to 70% of those aged 65 or over). This figure dropped to just 11% at last year's local elections in England.
  
  
• More people voted in the Big Brother elections than in the last General Election.
  
  
• In Serbia last year, so few voters turned up for the presidential elections, they were declared invalid. Three times.
  
  
• In Australia, like many other countries in the world, it is illegal NOT to vote in government elections. It has been compulsory since 1924. This means that if you are entitled to vote you MUST VOTE. Non voters are fined $20 AUS.
  
  
• In the US mid-term Congress elections in 2001, about 30% of the electorate voted.
  
  
• In the most recent referendum (election) in Iraq 100 % of voters supported Saddam Hussein, according to officials. Of the 11,445,638 eligible voters every one of them voted for the president. Saddam Hussein was the only candidate.
  
  
• In the last British General Election, turnout in one constituency (Liverpool Riverside) was 34.1% In Winchester it was 72.3%. The average across the country was 59.6% of the electorate, compared to 71.4% in 1997, which was itself a post-war low.