Spoilt votes - post them here so that the parties/papers can see them

You could also just email your local candidates and tell them that is what you'll be doing, as well as urging everyone you know to do the same. I've emailed mine to tell them why I am not voting for them.

re spoiling ballots:

It’s illegal to share a picture of a ballot paper under the Section 66 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, including your own.
metro.co.uk/2019/11/25/general-election-2019-polling-station-dos-and-donts-11205502/

But presumably if you blurred out the ballot number so you couldn't be identified how would they track you down.

My thought is it would have much more impact if everyone who has not voted / spolit there ballot paper sent the image of that ballot paper to the party they would have voted for to let them know they lost your vote.

(Be careful to wear gloves when handling the envelope and if your need to lick the flap to stick it down - dont! Avoid leaving DNA and apply moisture somehow else!)

There were a couple of articles (one in the Independent, and one syndicated round many local papers) about social media posts of spoiled papers.

No analysis of the numbers (spoiled as total of the whole, or published as proportion of the spoiled).

Overall less coverage than many other forms of social media activity.

And no official record made at the count, and no evidence-based analysis which would be the basis of policy consideration by any individual candidates or parties at either local ot national level.

I think it is absolutely everyone's right to vote, not vote, spoil the ballot or whatever.

The real problem is that none of us actually have a vote of any meaning unless we live in one of the very view swing constituencies.

This is because FPTP disenfranchises most of us. My vote is pointless. Only one party has ever won a seat where I live.

Everyone forgets (which is convenient for the 2 main parties) that the pact the Lib Dems made with the Tories was to get the chance to put forward the option of PR.

Everyone remembers the Lib Dems selling out the students to try and get this through. But we the voters rejected it (yes I know it wasn't perfect but it was a step forward).

So although as I young person I loved the slogan whoever you vote for the Government get in, I know think that the reality is we get the Government we deserve. If you listen to any phone in programme or the BBC trying ever so hard to be in touch with "ordinary" people, we have all become so dumbed down by personality politics that it is possible to elect a complete buffoon and / or liar and people are proud of them representing their country (and I could be talking US or UK). Because they have a good "media" personality.

We are trapped not just by FPTP but by the degrading way the media persents and manipulates party politics.

"I refer you to the extensive national coverage of spoiled ballots in the most recent elections held in this country."

Could you link that?

Because I can find only speculation based on the basic fact that spoiled votes exist

Nobody cares, in fact, nobody will even read them. This year’s candidates do not care at all about what voters think, much less so about what on voters do.

She'sDressedInBlackAgain and others.

I can't vote for them. I can't spend all this energy on this and then vote for a party that doesn't even know what a woman is. I can't vote for a party that thinks it is socialist but can't do the most basic class analysis. The loathing I feel for Momentum is fairly close to the loathing I felt for Thatcher's Tories. I feel very sad about that but I don't really care about whether the spoilt vote 'counts' - it counts for me.

That's it for me, in a nutshell.

I feel like I have been going out with a self absorbed twat for 30 years and he's been telling me he has very important things going on that need doing and I have been obediently waiting for the great man to save the world and have the time for me and now I find him in his office snuggling with his eighteen year old assistant and going 'Camilla has just had a bad break up and she needs a friend right now'.

ShesDressedInBlackAgain same here. Dad was a coal miner and became a Labour councillor and mayor. My entire 70s/80s childhood was steeped in Labour politics, and I've voted for them in every election (except for the massive mistake I made that helped return that utter waste if womanhood, Lynne Featherstone). I was telling my children yesterday how my sisters and I did the "women's work" for my dad while he was campaigning. it was women who, during the strike in '83, made sure I had food and clothes. I have voted for them against my own financial interests, hoping they would fulfil their promises. I will vote for them no more.

And thanks as well for the answer. I think I’ve been so caught up in the evils of Brexit and austerity and NHS underfunding that it’s hard to see everything from all angles. I had been thinking that the most important thing would be to get rid of the Tory/Brexit/austerity damage then if subsequent governments pushed on with self id etc, we could push back, protest, fight against it at that point.

But it is possible that I’m giving too much credit to how much they would listen and what people could actually change

I'm intending to write "as a woman this is the same as asking turkeys to vote for xmas"

ShesDressed God, doesn’t that just sum it up Women are the bottom of the list until we just disappear.

If you think Labour or libdems won’t get a majority government, why is it so pressing now? Is it that if enough people spoil their ballot paper for that reason, policy will change? And if the Tories stay in power because people don’t vote for the alternatives, can we trust them to protect women’s rights, given that the latest changes have happened under their government?

Hi

For me it is more about making my tiny stand. I am a tribal Labour voter. I would say I am a socialist. I grew up staunchly red against a background of industrial action.

I have been told for years and years that the left will get round to women once all the heavy lifting is done. I watched women make the tea and 'man' the soup kitchens when I was little and they weren't even allowed into the back room at our working men's club. And now apparently they have forgotten what we are. Apparently that boy is a woman. Apparently I am a bigot. Apparently I can be bought with free broadband and something else shiny and poorly costed.

I can't vote for them. I can't spend all this energy on this and then vote for a party that doesn't even know what a woman is. I can't vote for a party that thinks it is socialist but can't do the most basic class analysis. The loathing I feel for Momentum is fairly close to the loathing I felt for Thatcher's Tories. I feel very sad about that but I don't really care about whether the spoilt vote 'counts' - it counts for me.

Thank you PJ for that point of view. I hope that spoiled ballots are noticed and people’s concerns are taken seriously.

To all those saying don't spoil your ballot, for whom should we be voting? Who do you want to win, and why? What do you think your desired party will do regarding GRC reform? Instead of just patronising our intelligence, why not try selling voting to us?

If you think Labour or libdems won’t get a majority government, why is it so pressing now?

Because coalition.

If the LibDems enter a coalition with the Tories, they may drive this through as the quid pro quo for their votes in the Commons. The Tories are likely to take the most seats, even if they don't get a majority. The Tories don't give a fuck about women, but I doubt that the likes of Rees Mogg and Boris will have much truck with the gender lobby if they have outright power (yes, the GRA reform discussions started under the Tories, but not this lot). They may throw women under the bus to appease the LibDems.

A LibDem/Labour coalition would be the coalition of woke. The very thought gives me the chills.

The protection of women and children and our rights is never not urgent. This policy and Stonewall's, Mermaids' et al grip on all areas of society has been done while most people were napping (but thankfully, not the amazing women on here who opened my eyes). They are not going to stop pushing their agenda, they have no other reason to exist. We should not stop pushing back at them, no matter what else is going on in politics.

So if people still want to spoil, even knowing it won't make any difference and their 'message' will be unread and disregarded, then of course that is fine. But people may want to reconsider what they do if they have based their decision to spoil based on incomplete or erroneous information on what happens to ballot papers.

I refer you to the extensive national coverage of spoiled ballots in the most recent elections held in this country.

Stop telling people that their issue will be ignored. It's not fucking true.

Maybe read up on learned helplessness and stop blaming the people who did not create the situation but will be forced to live with the consequences.

getlighthouse.com/blog/learned-helplessness-employee-engagement-politics/

And despite all the bluster, it's evident that some people are very invested in talking people out of this, which makes me curious. Cos if they care as little as they say, why keep posting?

Oh gosh you got me bang to rights- I'm a TRA trying to make sure gender critical women don't protest by spoiling their votes.

Or alternatively as EdithWeston put it

It's not curious. It's the wish to make sure that people realise that they will not be 'sending a message' if they spoil their vote

There has been some absolute bollocks talked about this subject.

There have always been spoiled ballots. They are a minute proportion of the votes cast. In 2017 election they were actually less than 2015 despite those links trying to make out this was a remarkable phenomenon of that election.

Looks like I’ll be spoiling. I’ve contacted the candidates and asked them their opinions on Self ID.

No response.

And to those giving advice on whether spoiled ballots will be noticed. There are plenty of journalists and others who read these boards. I’d be surprised if large numbers of women turning out to spoil their ballots isn’t reported somewhere.

SheDressed and others -
Can I ask a question? It’s a genuine question not a goady one as I have a lot of respect for your position.

If you think Labour or libdems won’t get a majority government, why is it so pressing now? Is it that if enough people spoil their ballot paper for that reason, policy will change? And if the Tories stay in power because people don’t vote for the alternatives, can we trust them to protect women’s rights, given that the latest changes have happened under their government?

And this is absolutely not attacking anyone who has spoiled or will spoil their ballot papers. You’re fighting a good fight

"People who count the votes just chuck spoiled papers in the bin."
Having been one of those counters I can assure you DarrellMakepeace that you're talking bollocks.

Any vote which does not have one cross in one box is passed to the ?adjudicator? who will assess the voting intention. Often it's obvious (e.g. a cross beside the name and not on the box). Anything un-obvious is scrutinised by the party agents hoping to find a reason why it should count for them.

You know, so much effort is being made by so many posters here to pooh-pooh the intention to spoil a ballot, one could almost think spoiling a ballot paper MATTERED.

Well I've done it.

Written "None" across the top, then 'woman =adult human female'.
And
'I'll vote for you when you can tell me what a woman is'.

"it's evident that some people are very invested in talking people out of this, which makes me curious"

It's not curious. It's the wish to make sure that people realise that they will not be 'sending a message' if they spoil their vote.

They will be counted, to ensure that the total number of votes tallies. They will be scrutinised to see if there is any way that the marks on the paper could be interpreted as a valid vote for a single candidate (and that can be checked by candidates and their agents if they wish). But there will be no attention paid to how it is spoiled, just whether or not it is. No record is made other than the total, and there is nothing in the results to indicate whether it is a deliberate spoil (for whatever reason) or just confusion, incompetence, leaving blank or whatever).

So if people still want to spoil, even knowing it won't make any difference and their 'message' will be unread and disregarded, then of course that is fine. But people may want to reconsider what they do if they have based their decision to spoil based on incomplete or erroneous information on what happens to ballot papers.

And photography is not banned per se in polling stations, but anything which could erode the secrecy of the vote is potentially a crime. If an election official tells you not to (even if you think then wrong) then you must not do so. Making an image (or any other record) which includes the unique reference number of the ballot paper is specifically banned.

Women’s rights are so SO important, but if neither Labour or libdems are actually in power to enforce their bills, it’s not as pressing as it could be at another time.

Nope. Totally pressing for me. I held my nose last time. I won't do it again.