Before we dive in, pause and ask yourself: If most of us don’t trust the parties we vote for, and we feel powerless to change things, are we really living in a true democracy?

At the VETO Campaign, we’ve pinpointed the main culprit behind this mess. It’s a big flaw baked into our voting systems that stops voters from being truly in charge. In systems like the UK’s First-Past-The-Post (FPTP), if there’s no candidate who really speaks for you—or if your favorite has no shot at winning—you’re stuck. You either skip voting altogether or cast a vote that feels pointless, like throwing it away.

This broken setup causes all sorts of issues. It creates a gap between politicians and the people they represent, letting powerful special interest groups (like big corporations or lobbyists) call the shots instead.

It amplifies extremeism, as elections are based on”lead, follow, or get-out-of-the-way” — what we call an “electoral oligarchy.” That’s not democracy; it’s a cheap knockoff that turns voters into fuel. Voters end up just feeding a machine that can spit out results nobody wanted. The system can ignore or silence even the majority of us, which is why trust is so low. It’s not about bad people—it’s about bad design.

Here’s our simple fix: Add a “VETO” box on every ballot. This lets you say, “None of these candidates work for me—let’s try again.” If more than half the voters choose VETO, the election gets rerun soon after (say, within a few months). In the meantime, candidates get the message loud and clear: They need to listen to what people really want and tweak their ideas to win real support. Suddenly, winning isn’t just about scraping by—it’s about earning the trust of most voters.

Is the fix too simple? Shouldn’t it be complicated and cost billions? Imagine what else can be fixed if we changed the base paradigm.