But @Tanith (& anyone else who may need to hear it), (deliberately) spoiling your vote is not the same thing as not voting. The two should neither be confused nor conflated; & there are people (please note I am not accusing you of this!) who deliberately seek to do the latter to dissuade people from participating in a legitimate form of political protest.
In this specific instance, the Respect My Sex campaign was well-publicised before the election, so those ballots spoilt referencing that will have:
• told Tories that they can’t expect to simply scoop up the votes of all the people who’re concerned about this issue because they are somehow the only [large, GB-wide] Party willing to acknowledge there’s a real world & we’re living in it (the irony, oh, the irony)
• communicated to the rest of the omnishambles that people really do mean it about women’s rights being crucial when it comes to how they vote
Candidates (& their agents) see all the spoilt ballots, as per this guidance on how to spoil your ballot so yes, they are all aware of how many, if any, in their Ward were spoilt with “respect my sex” (or similar).
That votes had been spoiled this way was mentioned on Twitter by a journalist who was at a count in Cardiff, which is only going to increase the amount of discussion it gets. It’s just another wee weight to stack, together with the EHRC’s new guidance & the Cass Review, on the scales of Justice that are in such desperate need of rebalancing.
Vote-spoiling is literally for signalling you feel disenfranchised. That you wish to participate in the democratic process but nobody is representing you[r interests]. We do not owe our votes to a least-worst candidate. For many of us in England, it’s impossible to vote Tory: I mean, maybe Central Government would stop brutally punishing my Council if it went Blue, but probably not. And if Tory Councillors are as fond of disabled people as Tory MPs are… 😶 I don’t think all people who vote Tory are terrible humans - I know for a fact they’re not. But I couldn’t vote for a Party who willingly visit so much misery on the truly vulnerable.
The Parties would all happily force me to accept intimate care from a male person who simply says they “identify as” a woman. (If you think you can just request someone else, bless you & your adorable ignorance of how social care works [in practice]). They don’t think “woman” is anything other than an abstract concept; & they will do immeasurable harm should they be able to be able to create legislation that sets in stone the tenets of Gender Woo. People may not like that the UK has an established religion, but it does; & it’s the Church of England, not the Church of Gender Woo. The latter is still very much in the heretic-burning phase thankfully keeping it metaphorical & I really really do not want it digging in with a new set of Test Acts (targeting all recusants I hasten to add, no reason Catholics should have all the fun this time around) & resurrecting other recusancy punishments.