Have i made the biggest mistake of my life?

Never mind! Just one vote the wrong way is unlikely to have made much difference. Relax! Nobody won by only one vote (I think the closest was Gower, where the majority for the winner is 27) so it's not such a big deal.

Hey, you aren't the only one who might have fouled up when you got into the little booth. One thing that returning officers announce is the number of invalid votes, and one category of that is "voting for more candidates than entitled to". If there's a local council election on the same day where you can vote for more than one, it's not hard to mix up the papers and put two or three votes on the general election paper - and then it will end up in that category and not get counted. Usually each constituency gets about a hundred of those. Another category is "mark that could identify the voter" and we get a few of those too - apparently some people actually sign their ballot paper when it's supposed to be a secret ballot! You weren't THAT daft, were you? I bet not!

What you will have had is one paper for the general election for Parliament (probably the white one) and another for the local council. My sister had three as there was both the district council and the parish council having an election where she is! Of course with the general election being the big news, you might not have noticed there's another election too.

Just put it down to experience and next time round, do your research first. Local councils always have elections, by law, on the first Thursday in May and this year we happened to have a general election on the same date. It just saves money to do them at the same time. You might not get an election every year depending on how your council does it, but most years you will.

So here's my advice. Next time you get a poll card, probably towards the start of April again, wait a week (to allow for nominations to close) and then look at your local council web site. The poll card is from your council so you know which council to google, and it will say on the site (mostly there is a "Council and democracy" section so that's where to look) what elections are happening on the day. The site will show what candidates there are for each election, so now you know what there will be on each ballot paper. The council might cover more than one constituency (mine covers three because I'm in London so there's a lot of people and constituencies are smaller here) and if it's a council election, there will be a list for each ward. What constituency and ward are YOU in? It's on the poll card. Now you know what list(s) to take notice of.

Now take notice of how many you can vote for. In a general election it's one, in a council election it can be one, two or three. Why not take a note of the names you want to vote for and take your note to the polling station? There's no law that says you can't. Then you can X exactly what you want - take your note out of your pocket when you get into the little booth and be confident of getting it right.

Let's get advanced - not all elections work the same. In 2019 we get the next Euro-election, that's different and all you get is a choice of parties. So that's a lot easier. But again you might get a council election on the same day... same advice. Just know it's happening and work it out first so you won't be surprised or flustered in the polling station.

There are far bigger mistakes you can make in life! Marrying the wrong person, for a start.

You're right of course - we won't get another general election until 2020 because that's the law, but there will be other elections before that. Or is that true? It's possible that there could be an earlier general election, IF the government loses a vote in the House of Commons on the motion "That this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government". An overall majority of 12 is pretty small, and if the government gets that majority whittled away in by-elections from MPs dying or resigning, it COULD happen. I'm old enough to remember the Labour government in the 1970s and it fell to this confidence motion. I really doubt it, as that government started off with a smaller majority than the new government has, but all things are possible.

You may have made a mistake, but it's not such a big mistake unless the candidates you didn't want won by one vote. If that is the case, you can't change it now, just be better prepared for the next election. I don't know about your country, but here you can see sample ballots online before an election.

So beforehand you did not read any papers or watch TV to give you an insight who was a candidate in your area.

Your mistaken vote was not crucial on the end result. Thousands voted at polling stations.

Next time do your research beforehand.

UK

Ok, calm down! Listen, one vote will not change the tide like that... OK? Just stay calm. Theres really not much you can do.

no, I am sure you have even bigger mistakes to look forward to