If you have lived through a number of elections you'll have plenty against which to measure this one.

Perhaps you agree that this election represents a stark choice of values and priorities. Or perhaps you're part of the consensus that the 2015 campaign has been uninspiring, negative and almost wholly lacking in vision.

What is certain is that huge promises have been made but with little or no detail on how they can be delivered and an infuriating absence of specifics.

But this is likely to be the most important general election in a long time, certainly in a generation.

Today we speak to a number of voters across several constituencies and they tell us why they will be putting a cross on the ballot paper today.

In 2010, a staggering 181,000 (almost one third) of electors in Dorset did not cast a vote in the general election. 

But every vote matters, if not to the result in each constituency then certainly to the overall cause of democracy.

And this time around, there are local council elections in the equation. When the general and local polls coincide, strange things can happen.

So if a sense of duty is the only motivation, it's as good a motivation as any. Decisions are made by those who turn up.

How the numbers break down

Across the eight constituencies of Bournemouth East, Bournemouth West, Christchurch, Poole, Mid Dorset and North Poole, South Dorset, North Dorset and West Dorset, 573,008 people were eligible to vote in 2010 but just 391,111 bothered to do so.

In five of our constituencies – both Bournemouth ones, Mid Dorset and North Poole, Poole and South Dorset – the number of people not voting outweighed the number of people who voted for the winning candidate.

11 charts that show why you should vote today

The local constituency with the highest number of non-voters in 2010 was Bournemouth West, where 30,094 people – almost 42 percent of the electorate - chose not to participate in the election.

Just 18,808 people voted for the successful candidate, Conservative Conor Burns and the number of non-voters was more than five times greater than Mr Burns’ majority of 5,583.

The second highest number of non-voters was in Bournemouth East. Thirty eight percent of the electorate – 27,101 people – did not vote for any of the candidates.

As in Bournemouth West, the number of non-voters was greater than the number of people who voted for the successful candidate, Conservative Tobias Ellwood. He polled 21,320 votes and the number of non-voters was three-and-a-half times greater than his 7,728 majority.

The constituency with the third biggest proportion of non-voters was Poole, where over a third of the electorate did not bother voting in 2010.

Everything you need to know about voting today

A total of 25,205 people didn’t vote, slightly more than the 22,532 people who elected Conservative MP Robert Syms.

Even in our most marginal constituency of Mid Dorset and North Poole, almost a third of the electorate chose not to vote, despite the fact the seat was on a knife-edge between Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates.

Almost 21,000 Mid Dorset and North Poole residents didn’t vote in a fiercely contested election that saw Liberal Democrat MP Annette Brooke returned with a majority of 269.

Even in the constituencies with the highest turnout, thousands of people chose not to vote. More than a quarter of West Dorset, North Dorset and Christchurch residents failed to vote while the figure was 31 percent in South Dorset.