Are 'Politics' only for the voters now?

I had a ring at the door earlier this week. It was the rosette I noticed first. A goldy, yellow rosette on the lapel of a 60-something's sports coat. My brother and I won identical symbols for placing in a donkey derby at Pontins several decades ago. The conversation that ensued went something like this:

Rosette-Wearer (smiling): Mr Bennett?
Me: No.
RW: You're not Mr Bennett?
Me: No.
RW (looking at paper in his hand and genuinely scratching his head): But there were four of you. Them, I mean. You're sure?
Me: Yes.
RW: This is number 24?
Me: Yes. We only moved in a few months back and we've not had anything through about the electoral roll. The Bennett's moved out some time ago I believe.
RW: Oh, I see. Well, I'm not surprised, this ward is notoriously bad at all that administrative stuff. Anyway, sorry to have bothered you. Goodbye.

Now I'm not normally adverse to being left alone in my own home, but the more I've thought about this the more I'm troubled by it. There is I concede an element of assumption here, but it seems reasonable to see this as a regular canvassing call in advance of a local election and having found a household unable to cast a vote, the representative decided to move on swiftly to the next house which did have some ballot cards perched on the mantle-piece.

This reduces politics to a mere process - where securing votes and getting more of them than the other candidates is the end objective. Apathy about politics is, I believe, increased when society sees politicians overtly playing this game above considering real issues.

I may not be voting (this time round), but I still live in the community where the election is being held. The local issues affecting my neighbour who does have a polling card, are no less relevant to me and my family. And yet that is how my gentleman caller made me feel.

What I tasted in this experience is what it might be like to be disenfranchised. Very quickly I felt like I didn't matter, that my viewpoint was irrelevant, that the elected officials didn't really care about those who did not have a say. My hunch is that RW would have given a similarly disinterested display to a 16 year old at home alone. And I doubt that the supported living scheme round the corner has ever featured on the calling list.

Is it not those without a voice, or whose voices are not heard that are most in need of the opportunity to speak to a representative of a body wishing to hold a position of power?

I'm probably reading too much into what was a minor event. I also acknowledge the dangers of using one experience to make or prove a point. There are energetic, enlightened and representative people in politics at a local level. To those seeking to join those ranks I simply urge them to remember that they're not entering a donkey derby; winning a race and being awarded a rosette is not the goal. It is people, not votes, that should matter. It is too easy to forget that whilst all voters are people, not all people are voters.