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?

Have a play with this site
www.voterpower.org.uk/

Not sure how spoiling ballot papers creates any pressure for change. How's that supposed to work? Is some mythical "None Of The Above" creature going to materialise from the ether, with policies that are somehow preferable to everything else on offer even though the people wishing for them never let their preferences - however vague and grudging - be known?

In other words, voting for "None of the above" means exactly that - there is going to be no-one at all standing up for your interests, whatever they may happen to be. What is more, you are not even giving existing political parties a "steer" on the kind of things that matter to you and the kind of country you want.

If anybody has been watching 'ballot monkeys' on channel 4, you may have noticed that people who still haven't made up their minds who to vote for were described as 'terminally confused', 'easily led' and 'bemused wildebeest...the stampede is about to begin'.

Thanks for the link, as I thought its an "ultra safe" Conservative seat, probably why no one has even bothered to canvass the area. Spoiling the ballot it is then!

I worked as a count officer in an election...we saw all the ballot papers. The one with drawings of penises and other sundry body parts were lumped in with 'non of the above' 'all of the above'. They are counted as 'spoilt' to make sure all ballot papers handed out are accounted for.

No-one else sees them, no matter how artistic

My DH has done this today. He didn't want to go unheard and appear to not engage in politics (when in reality he is more politically aware than me) - but he hates all the candidates and could not give any one his vote.

I voted normally on my general election paper and on my local paper wrote none of the above across the names - what I really wanted to write was please can I have a candidate that isn't a rich, white man.

I spoiled my first vote in Ireland as all the main party candidates in my area were pro-life and had campaigned against the Divorce Referendum and the other candidates didn't have policies I agreed with either. I would never have not voted.

And that was with proportional representation! That's another reason to spoil a vote in PR system because your vote transfers to candidates you can't support on principle.

I have done it many times in local elections.

I am a staunch Labour supporter (and member). I live in the 3rd safest Tory seat in Britain.

Because of that, in local elections, Labour often doesn't field a candidate because it would be a waste of party funds.

This leaves me with nobody I want to vote for:

• Tory - never in a month of Sundays
• UKIP - not even with a gun to my head
• LibDem - ,ight have considered it before they got into bed with the Tories
• Green - no candidate
• Somthing with England in its Title: never ever ever

So what should I do? Not vote?

So I spoil my paper by writing "none of the above" across it. It really seems like my only option.

My vote today in the GE is a complete waste but I shall go and cast it because there is a cabdidate / party which I want to vote for

That's why from my very particular point of view and hope it makes sense!

The non voters has become a political issue ...
look at the charts on this page in my local paper
www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/12936019.ELECTION_2015__Live_coverage_on_polling_day/

If you do not vote, do not complain about the bad decisions of others

I have a silly question: one of my papers I had to vote for two parties. I only wanted to vote for one of them so I just voted for one. Will I have spoilt my paper?

You can vote for up to the allowed number of candidates.

I thought this was pertinent:

It is better to spoil your vote rather than not vote at all. Spoiling your vote shows that you wanted to engage with the process, not voting looks like you can't be added either way.

Just looked at the Vote Power Index and in my area

one person does not really have one vote, they have the equivalent of 0.150 votes

I think for those who want to keep ukip out and are choosing amongst the least worst options please just vote for the party most likely to keep them out in your area.

Of course everybody has 1 vote (unless we're talking about Tower Hamlets!). I used mine this morning.

If people never bother to use their vote or make facile gestures like spoiling ballot papers, then they can hardly complain about the government that ensues.

None of the electoral candidates gives a sh*t if you have drawn a unicorn or a cock and balls on the ballot paper (in fact, they are unlikely even to see it in the first place). All they care about is about getting elected (or, perhaps, gaining or retaining vote share). Does anyone seriously think that the winning politico is going to be announcing: "Well, I have just been elected as MP for Anytown, with a majority of 5000 votes over my nearest rival, but three people drew unicorns on their ballot paper, four wrote "NOTA" and six included swear words. I must therefore step down immediately, insist my fellow candidates do likewise and we'll all stand again on a platform of.... well, I dunno, something that will appeal to these wise no-voters who have made such a profound gesture"?

Of course people don't think the candidates will be wailing and gnashing teeth over a few unicorns or nota ballot papers. It's about conscience. Dh takes a great deal of interest in politics and he would not be able to be easy with his conscience if he voted for a party/individual who he didn't fully support. I don't feel this way and will be voting tactically to hopefully avoid a Tory takeover. But dh's conscience would not allow him to do that and that is his choice in the democracy.

Moonatic - so what do you think I should do then when faced with the options I outlined above?

Obviously I don't draw on the paper - I write "none of the above"

how stupid do you sound when you want to trash your vote slip, grow up for christs sake !

I think BitOutOfPractice sound extremely lucid, actually.

MrsFuzzy
If you lived in the constituency where the election options were
(a) John Bercow, the speaker
(b) a green party candidate
(c) a UKIP candidate
and nobody else, what would you do?

The point of registering anger at the current system is that it will hasten electoral reform that at present leaves 70,000 voters utterly disenfrachised

I am a staunch Labour supporter (and member). I live in the 3rd safest Tory seat in Britain.

Because of that, in local elections, Labour often doesn't field a candidate because it would be a waste of party funds.

But what if there are voters who want to vote for labour? but Labour couldn't be arsed to field a candidate, aren't those voters going to be pissed off That labour has tied them all to the same brush and not bothered to give them a representative? Of course it will always stay a tory safe seat if other partys think that and don't even put candidates forward.

mrsfuzzy I said earlier in the thread that have spoiled by vote in the past and did so again this morning. I won't vote for a candidate/party that will not grant me the same reproductive rights as other women in the UK (I'm in NI). I have told everyone of the candidates who called canvassing that - guess what they told me? The Northern Irish public don't want a change in abortion law, we know this because they have voted parties in that don't want it. You know who gave the parties that mandate - people who voted for the best of a bad bunch.

A spoilt ballot counts as a clear signal that none of the candidates floated that particular voter's boat. Especially if decorated with something like 'You are all a bunch of self-serving w***rs'. All spoilt ballots are viewed by the candidates or their agents so that it is agreed that they are 'spoiled'.