Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To spoil my ballot?

163 replies

OvariesBeforeBrovaries · 05/05/2017 13:32

I know IABU to talk about politics when there's a bajillion other threads on it already. I await your Biscuit throwing Grin

I've never even contemplated doing this before, in my head I've equated it to being the same as not voting at all. I want to vote, I want to take part in this democracy, but I'm so frustrated and disenfranchised. I don't want any of them to win. I don't want party politics and adults acting like kids slagging off other parties and other people in the newspapers and on TV because they have opposing politics. I want a group of people who have been elected for their own personal politics and views to sit down together and figure something out, rather than three or four groups of people waving their willies about and refusing to budge on issues because "that's what the party does" and just coming out with random slogans that mean nothing instead of actually answering questions.

I can't vote Conservatives. Hell would freeze over before I did.

I won't vote for Labour because while I think Corbyn is neither the demon nor the saint he's been made out to be, regardless of him the party is in a complete state and until one side or the other decides fuck it, this isn't working and does something to lead to a more united party, I can't vote for them.

My political views align with the Lib Dems, I think, and I like that Farron seems able to separate his religious views and his politics (unlike May who got all pissy about "Easter" but sees nothing wrong with food banks and disabled people dying), but I went to uni in 2012 so voting Lib Dem feels like heresy as one of the first years to be hit with £9k a year tuition fees (that said, I'm in Wales so the government fee grant took care of the extra, which may be why I'm not so militant about it).

Plaid, Greens etc feel like a wasted vote.

UKIP is a joke really.

What I'm getting at is, is spoiling your ballot the same as not voting at all? I don't want to write an essay on there because I know it won't get read, just to scribble all over it or draw in my own "none of the above" box or something. Last GE I saw people really criticising those who spoiled their ballots and I agreed, but now I feel so disenfranchised by it all. Do you vote for the lesser of all evils, just so that at least you've voted?

OP posts:
Elphame · 06/05/2017 21:28

If you spoil your vote you have at least taken the time and trouble to turn out. Better than being accused of apathy.

BoneyBackJefferson · 06/05/2017 22:08

Italiangreyhound

facebook link

webpage

petition version 2

Already had one petition
been through the electoral commission who have said that we should have have it
once again parliment won't put it on the ballots.

wankbadgers · 06/05/2017 22:19

You are lucky enough to have a vote. Use it.

MissShittyBennet · 06/05/2017 22:41

Do whatever you want. It's important that you're able to write or draw whatever you like on your ballot paper. It's yours.

Just don't ever, for a second, delude yourself that it'll do anything at all. The people telling you what happens to the spoiled ballots at counts aren't lying. And also don't dare complain about whoever does get in.

BoneyBackJefferson · 06/05/2017 22:55

And also don't dare complain about whoever does get in.

Why?

I have taken part in the electoral process, I have registered my dissatisfaction with the parties involved, that gives me (and others) as much right to moan about who gets in.

Just because I am not voting in away that appeases or pleases you, doesn't give you the right to call any shots.

BelleTheSheepdog · 06/05/2017 22:59

Hear hear, Boney.

lucydogz · 06/05/2017 23:12

for those who say that spoilt ballot papers aren't reported - the was reported in the results on Thursday, as I remember being surprised how many there were

Italiangreyhound · 06/05/2017 23:43

Boney what will happen if we all spoil our papers or got a chance at None of the Above.

Where would these new acceptable good politicians come from?

ExplodedCloud · 06/05/2017 23:59

I would like an anti-vote. So for those situations where you think "Anyone but..." You could actively vote against them.
Then I could reserve my ballot spoiling for a protest against the police commissioner non job.

JustAnotherPoster00 · 07/05/2017 00:18

FGS the vulnerable and disabled aren't everyones priority

Well fuck you very much, I do hope you never have to deal with a catastrophic change of circumstances, wait yes I do and I hope the tories are in when it happens to you

BentleyBelly · 07/05/2017 00:19

I was tempted to do it at the local election last week. I couldn't find a scrap of info about the candidates other than their names. Felt like a lucky dip vote.

MissShittyBennet · 07/05/2017 08:24

Lucydogz I don't think anyone was saying spoiled papers aren't reported. They're definitely counted up and it's been that way for as long as I can remember. There just isn't any mechanism for anyone to pay attention to them.

So the returning officer will read out that there's been 98 spoiled ballots or whatever, but won't differentiate between the ones that are spoiled because somebody put a cross instead of a number or vice versa, and ones that are spoiled because somebody wrote a well researched paragraph about how none of the options on offer reflect their views sufficiently. The papers get counted up generally by people who are being employed for that one night to do it and don't hold any other power or position of influence. They just get put in a pile. That's it.

MissShittyBennet · 07/05/2017 08:39

Why?

I have taken part in the electoral process, I have registered my dissatisfaction with the parties involved, that gives me (and others) as much right to moan about who gets in.

Just because I am not voting in away that appeases or pleases you, doesn't give you the right to call any shots.

Why? Because you've wussed out. Refused to locate and don any big girl pants. You've actively chosen not to take the best way you had to influence the process.

The stuff about calling shots and appeasement is a bit silly- it must be clear to you that I'm not suggesting your right to free speech gets formally suspended if you go and draw a penis or a smiley face on your ballot paper? Obviously not.

It just means that if you thought they were all the same to the extent that you couldn't bring yourself to choose one above the others, you had a mechanism to try and stop the party who won and you didn't use it. Thus, doing so evidently wasn't important enough to you for you to manage to hold your nose and do anything meaningful about it. Only to whinge later.

So with that in mind, sure, spoil your ballot and complain if you must, we live in a free country after all. But I'm afraid the right to free speech goes both ways, and you're just going to have to put up with those of us who did try and influence the process to the maximum extent being highly unsympathetic to you complaining afterwards. If you or anyone else who didn't bother making a meaningful contribution do it in my hearing (because you certainly didn't) then I'm going to have plenty to say to you about it.

Lastly the point about where these acceptable politicians are all going to spring from if enough of you spoil your ballots is a salient one. I mean, we routinely have turnouts well under 50% in everything other than GEs and constitutional referenda in the UK and it hasn't impacted on the democratic institutions. And if it did, it would probably lead to more centralisation of power anyway, which tends to make it harder not easier for people to have influence.

Secretsquirrelclub · 07/05/2017 08:43

What if enough people spoiled their ballot - say 60% of voting public, sorry for ignorance, but what would happen ?

MissShittyBennet · 07/05/2017 08:51

Well, we routinely have elections where more than 60% of people don't cast a valid vote, the overwhelming majority of those abstainers simply not voting at all. And the answer to your question there is 'nothing'.

I think some of the vote spoilers are arguing that people abstaining by turning up and doodling/writing nothing on the paper, rather than staying away would be treated differently. Nobody seems to have outlined a mechanism for how, though.

JacquesHammer · 07/05/2017 08:56

FGS the vulnerable and disabled aren't everyones priority

What an absolutely atrocious comment. The most needy in society should be EVERYONE's priority

BelleTheSheepdog · 07/05/2017 08:58

If you cannot in conscience vote for any party then spoil your ballot.

It's hardly like anyone would go round boasting how they voted anyway , would they?

BelleTheSheepdog · 07/05/2017 09:04

It's not about others treating my vote differently.Yes it's a tiny piece of paper chucked in a bin but it's all I have.

So it's a futile gesture, I don't care! It has a value TO ME.

Voting to me IS a precious thing. So I go to the ballot box and follow my conscience.

It's between the individual and the ballot box.

MissShittyBennet · 07/05/2017 09:05

Dunno about boasting, but lots of people talk about how they voted. I don't spoil my ballot, but I do talk about it with friends and family, that's not unusual. Some people never want to disclose how they have voted, which I respect, but for lots of us it's something we discuss with family and friends. My cousin claimed to have done a write in for Joffrey Baratheon in the last council elections. I told him he was a tit.

BelleTheSheepdog · 07/05/2017 09:06

Really sounds like you'd tear a strip of anyone who disagrees with your world view from your posts!

MissShittyBennet · 07/05/2017 09:08

My best pal holds different political views to me as it happens...

silkybear · 07/05/2017 09:13

My advice would be to have a look at the vote for policies website, this will ask you questions and recommend who to vote for based on your specific views. You can also google the tactical voting spreadsheet which will tell you who to vote for in your area to get the tories out. That would be more constructive than spoiling the paper.

BelleTheSheepdog · 07/05/2017 09:30

Well done!

BoneyBackJefferson · 07/05/2017 09:32

Italiangreyhound

I have no idea what would happen, other than the political parties should have to take note of how many people object to their policies. As to what would happen at the election it would have to be run again.

Bintheredunthat · 07/05/2017 09:44

As disillusioned as I am with the whole lot of them this tweet sums it up for me.
I don't care if Labour, Lib Dems or The Monster Raving Looney party win as long as we get rid of this cruel Conservative government.
I'm concerned that some people are not fully aware of the damage this government has done to Health, Education, Housing etc
We are a very wealthy nation who now chooses to give tax cuts to corporations & the wealthy whilst underfunding NHS, Education, Disability support, & Housing.
It's a lie to say we can't afford it & I'm very afraid for my children & grandchildren's future if the Tories are re elected Sad

To spoil my ballot?