Have you spoilt your ballot? A thread to indicate numbers

I see we have all the usual misrepresentations of and about spoiled ballots. Have a look at electoral law and the actual procedure and who examines and sees them: the returning officer or deputy returning officer, the candidates, and their agents. The ballots are then formally adjudicated upon as to type of spoiled ballot, and counted. The tally is published.

Where I live there have been elections for key council seats won on tiny minorities (as small as 2), with more spoiled ballots than the winning margin. Damn right the losing candidate remembers those spoiled ballots opposing a controversial planning decision.

Is it Sunderland that always race to be first? Definitely somewhere in the NE!

General election votes are always counted overnight.

Other elections, such as local elections and by-elections, the votes may be counted overnight or the next day.

The count will be over night in my constituency. And £27 per hour.

And once again. Spoiling your vote is using your vote. It’s using it to signal that you were engaged enough to vote, but didn’t like any of the options.

I’m intrigued who you think people should cast their vote for if they can’t support any of the candidates standing.

And see upthread for the suggested implications of a massive increase in spoilt papers.

I'm in Scotland and will do the same as you because in my constituency at least I know that the candidates (or their teams) are all shown the individual spoiled ballots and a friend had a picture of their ballot in the local paper after they wrote a message of protest on it to spoil it.

the Ballot papers only go to people who are being paid £10 an hour to count the ballots

It’s £30 an hour here.

The point is the spoilt papers are counted, and so recorded.

Dont know about this particular election, but the last few have been counted the next day.
Its cheaper, it's often easier to get staff.

So unless this goes back to counting through the night, theres no rush.

Spoiling your vote is totally legitimate. Especially when you have red lines meaning there's nobody to vote for.

The reason there's nobody to vote for is because of our political engagement. We aren't blindly / tribally voting for no other reason than we've always voted for that party. I'd say blindly loyal voting isn't showing political awareness, critical thinking or virtue, as some on the left appear to think on this board.

Spoiling votes is a protest only to you. No-one else will recognise that you have done it, and for women as politically involved and able as you seem to be, it does seem a waste. Use your vote.

I've also worked as a scrutineer before (in another country, but the process is quite similar) and each ballot is looked over during the count before being placed in a box. The spoiled ballots are put aside. Nothing is read - in the digested context of the term - there simply isn't time for that. The pressure is on to count the votes for the constituency and make the returns.

It's fairly easy to spot those scolders who haven't really been to a count versus those who have.

Safe seat here. I think I'll be following your lead and using the same quote @MilitantFawcett

Maybe we just do things differently in the south west

Or maybe the vote scolders are lying about what happens!

Bearing in mind each spoiled vote is categorised into type of spoil, somebody somewhere is looking at them. 🤷‍♀️

I’ve spoiled my postal ballot. Used the Susan B Anthony quote. I’m in a very safe Tory seat and Labour (my natural choice) only ever come a very distant third so it doesn’t feel like any more of a wasted vote than an unspoiled one.

I’m sure this will upset some on this thread but I have several friends who are counters. They have all said that spoiled votes (that aren’t just pictures of willies 😁) do get read, by advisers if not by candidates themselves. Especially if the vote is close or things are looking shaky for the party. Maybe we just do things differently in the south west?

I watched tonight's debate and I have finally decided how to vote. I have had the vote for the last 5 elections and have found reasons to vote Labour (3) LibDem (1) and Tory (1). I have been flirting with a spoiled or frivolous vote this time but I really want my vote to count for something. My constituency has had a massive Tory majority since forever but is now forecast to be a Labour marginal. The only way that I can influence the Labour Party on the subject of women's rights is to vote Tory. The only way that they can be persuaded to put women's needs first is to lose seats that they thought that they had in the bag.

Wes Streeting's having a right old froth post debate there.
He knows Starmer wasn't winning hearts and minds.

And as for all the 'vote them in, we'll deal with women's rights afterwards',

I always feel that this attitude has more than a touch of the "First the glorious revolution and then we'll see about giving you women some rights", about it.

And as you say, It's pointless giving a vote to a party if you don't agree with their manifesto cos they're going to claim that all the votes were because of the things contained in the manifesto.

Kathleen Stock and Julie Bindel have both stated publicly that they'll vote Labour but they're not happy about the party's stance on women's rights. Labour will happily take the votes and not give a shit about any unhappiness.

I was going to spoil my ballot, or vote for 'Rejoin EU' but in a fit of pique after Starmer's latest bullshit, I voted Tory. I live in an area that's been red forever and an MP who seems like a permanent part of the landscape so it won't make any difference, but it seemed in the moment like the best way to say 'fuck you Labour'. No one really knows what our MP thinks or what he actually does, but that's one vote against his complacency.

I'll add my two cents to the spoiled vote discussion, having worked in electoral services for a long time.

In my experience the observers are interested in spoiled votes and anything out of the ordinary. The count is a boring business a lot of the time, watching piles of votes stack up and hoping your pile is going to be the largest, and they all know it can sometimes come down to one vote (or even drawing lots) to decide an outcome. It must also be galling to miss out by just a few votes, and recounts are a given where it's even remotely close.

So when there's a ballot paper that's unclear, it provides a bit of excitement for everyone. As a count supervisor I always held up spoilt votes for any observers to see clearly. These people may be the candidate themselves, election agent etc and they usually have someone making notes. They will quite often have something to say - eye rolls about confused voters making mistakes, or indignation when someone writes something sweary or rude. They often want to know why they didn't get that precious vote (probably not in the case of my immovable MP as above, but hey ho). I get the impression the campaigners within their parties will all share notes and talk about anything unusual they saw. It also kind of kept the count supervisors going having a bit of a discreet laugh about the rude ones we saw.

I'm going to watch Starmer in tonight's debate. Last chance saloon before I fill in my postal vote.

It's always bizarre to see the 'vote for Labour, you thick fuckers' argument. Has it ever proven a winning strategy?

The argument seems to be that if you don't use your vote, you are betraying women who fought for your right to have a vote. The argument against spoiled votes seem to be that it's a waste and somehow undemocratic. But obviously anyone who votes for anything besides the Labour Party (even if they have proven themselves to be shit beyond reckoning) is a society hating idiot.

So, basically - vote Labour. Even if they're shit, even if you don't agree with them. Because that's what other people have decided that you must do.

That's the democratic way, apparently.

And as for all the 'vote them in, we'll deal with women's rights afterwards', they may well do what the SNP did and say, 'well, you voted for us. You knew our views and policies. So you voted for this. You can't complain now'.

(And before I get the wild arm waving of 'you're going to vote Tory!!!!l, I'm not. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I may spoil my vote. I may even be forced to strategically vote for Labour just to make sure that the SNP/Greens/Lib Dems can't get in. But the whinging? God, it makes me want to dance up and down on my ballot paper out of sheer spite).

👍

I've already sent mine in (spoiled) but if a POW or joke candidate like Binface was standing in my constituency of course I'd vote for them. But I didn't have that option.

I never got the concept of a spoiled ballot!

I'm going to spoil, first time ever. I'm 61.

If a party cannot be upfront and HONEST about what they KNOW a woman to be, for Christ's sake, I will not give them my permission to govern.

Tory left it Far Too Late.

I will write on my spoilt ballot paper, as I gather they do get read.

"spoiling your vote/ refusing to vote is like shitting the bed in protest and then realising you still have to sleep in it"

The thing with analogies is they are just like owls wearing glasses and holding fountain pens... They conjure up persuasive imagery that something wise and intelligent has been said when really they're just bird brained nonsense