to wonder why people spoil their ballot papers?

[RedButtonhole]

What does it achieve? Surely you'd be as well not voting, or am I missing the point?

I considered spoiling my vote this year. People died for my right to vote, so the least I can do is to vote.

This year, I don't want to actually vote for anyone, so spoiling my paper would be my way of registering my protest.

Our local polls have just been released and it seems to be a 2 horse race between the Green Party and UKIP so I'm voting Green, in the hope of keeping UKIP out.

I would like to write lots of rude words beside the UKIP candidate's name, but I don't want to waste my vote

My sister is considering this as she is in John Bercow's constituency and none of the main parties are putting up opposition as he is speaker. I understand her feeling cross that she doesn't get the choice to chose between all the main parties. She does have a Green and UKIP option.

My dad once drew a very elaborate picture of a donkey on his ballot paper and wrote 'none of the above'.

To me that gives a much clearer message than not turning up

I thought about it but then just voted for what I considered the least worst option.

Where I live, I nearly always have to spoil my ballot in our local council elections - the choice is nearly always between the Tories and UKIP. So I add a 'none of the above' box and choose that one to show that I turned up to vote and that I am not happy with what is on offer.

I've counted votes on two occasions; basically, anything that didn't have an X in one box was taken as spoiled. I saw blank forms, forms with an X that straddled two boxes, some with a pithy message; all were lumped together. Some were clearly deliberate spoils, others notsomuch. As a protest vote, I don't think it's very effective, but it's the only option, if that's what someone wants to do.

As I've said before (and will doubtless do again quite often ), I'd make voting compulsory, but include 'none of the above' as a voting option, which could then be counted and recorded.

as someone who does the count, amusing spoiled papers brighten up our night . As do the very very cross ones.

I honestly never knew that this was a thing. I'm going to vote because I want to trust and believe in the party who have convinced me. However, I may use this in future.

iv spolied one of my votes this time.
it was our local villiage vote it was between the two parties that i hate the most, i was like having to chose which eye to poke with a knife. so spolied vote was the only way to go for me

I plan on writing "YABU" on mine, in the hope that a MNer will be among those counting! I'll have DS (3yo) with me so I might let him "vote" too!

None of the parties represent what is important to me so I shan't vote for anyone until they do. I will keep turning up & doodling on the vote papers though, just to prove I care. I might spend a little while tonight practicing a pretty picture to add, maybe a little message thanking the voter-counters for their hard work...

I've often wanted to spoil my ballot paper; the reason being that the choice is between professional liars, and professional liars. It pains me to inflate their egos by voting for them.

(Tony Bliar single-handedly gave me a deep dislike for politics.)

I will not be spoiling my ballot paper, just voting tactically.

I had a look into this as I don't want to vote for any of the candidates standing in my area.
From what I could gather if you spoil your vote (by defacing, scribbling, etc.,) then it is possible it may not be counted. For it to count as a vote but without actually voting it advised to draw a line through all of the candidate boxes and write 'none of the above'. This way they have to count the vote as valid but you don't have to vote. I read it here: www.votenone.org.uk/protest_votes_count.html
Apologies if I've repeated what anyone else has said!

Harder at the general election, but at local elections it is very easy to get on the ballot. You need 10 signatures and that is it. If you don't like what is on offer, then change the offer. I've been at counts, and there has been no handwringing by candidates over the spoilt paper protest. Only a careful check that it can't possibly be construed as a vote for them. Somebody has to do the job. If you aren't involved in shaping politics by cgi ism yourself, you choose your least worst option. And I say that as someone who used to be very active, and is now very disillusioned and has played no part in an election campaign for the first time I can remember (I leafleted with my mum from a very young age!) I will however be casting a valid vote tomorrow.

Cgi ism = activism

This might help some of you understand. Protest votes

I will be spoiling my vote tomorrow, simply because I believe that no party out there deserves my vote. So rather than becoming part of a large statistic of idle non-voters (34% of us!), or conforming for the sake of a quiet life, I want to be part of a hopefully larger than normal group of people who refuse to fall prey to the ever-growing bunch of self-serving idiots who claim to have our country's best interests at heart.

People fought for our right to vote, so we owe it to them to at least say what we think. And if that means that you feel that no party represents your ideas, then the only way to convey that message is by actively saying it. If you don't vote we will never know what that vote could have been. Last time we never knew what a third of us thought.

What a waste.

X-post with Yeasayer. Got distracted whilst typing

I am still deciding between spoiling my vote and voting for the only potential candidate who could seat the incumbent (but who I disagree with).

Great minds acatcalledjohn

I'm probably going to spoil my vote with 'none of the Above'. Reasons as previously stated.

Although I understand frustration at the main parties, what is the point of spoiling your paper? Someone has to speak for your area, do you want no one to represent you in parliament? What if your whole area spoiled their papers?

IMHO you should vote for the one you most agree with, or vote tactically. Spoiling a paper achieves nothing.

My MP is the Speaker of the House of Commons. The is a sort of old boys agreement that none of the main parties will stand against him, so we really don't have a democratic process here. I don't think anyone died giving me that lack of democratic rights so I feel no guilt spoiling my paper.

I wrote "This is political meddling" across my police commissioner voting paper. Turn up and be heard. Vote honestly, vote tactically or spoil your vote but do vote.

I've only spoiled my vote once. I drew cartoon unicorns frolicking across the ballot paper

I also spoiled my ballot paper in the police commissioner elections- what a bloody waste of money. From the turnout, I think it was a cost of about £3 per vote!

I'd really love an option for none of the above and then there'd be no candidate voted in