To spoil my ballot?

[OvariesBeforeBrovaries]

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

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?

YANBU We need a 'none of the above' opinion imo.

I would never not vote and would usually agree that spoiling the ballot is silly.

Not sure now though.

Unless someone else gets a campaign together in the next three days my choice in the General Election is going to be:

1. Conservative
2. UKIP

That's not Democracy!

How am I supposed to vote for one of those?

Totally ok to spoil your paper. I got my mum back voting by reminding her that spoiling her ballot was an option.
Imagine if 10% of the electorate did it. It wouldn't change the world immediately but the parties would need to think about why so many did it.

I've spoilt my ballot twice, both for the Police Commissioners. I have a right to vote. I use it as best as I can, but in these situations all I knew was that there was a vote. I hadn't got a clue who was even standing until I looked at the ballot paper. But by spoiling, it was acknowledged that I had turned up to a polling booth. I know my comment will have gone to waste, but it was acknowledged that there was an unusually high proportion of spoils indicating active dissatisfaction. Non attendance can be dismissed as apathy and any dissatisfaction can not be acknowledged either.

Better to spoil than abstain.

I will say on student fees that it was Labour who introduced them and a Conservative majority within the coalition that lead the LDs to pass the changes. All main parties have dirty hands on that policy at some point.

Apologies if this has already been said but I would love a box that said
"None of the Above"
(People of a certain age will recognise this from Brewster's Millions) I see it as a way of letting he politicians know that they need to go away and rethink their policies. Before anyone 'has a go' I will be voting - albeit reluctantly for the party I feel will do the least damage.

Tonight on BBC news, when discussing the French Presidential elections, they made more of the particularly high rate of spoilt ballots!
Seen as expressing the dissatisfaction with the two candidates and the system.

But there are also people shocked that more French people seemingly couldn't be bothered to get out and vote against a far right, racist party. They don't know the ins and outs of why people abstained, whether it was genuine indifference between the far right or liberal centre, laziness, anger that the candidates were both too right wing, or too maverick, or too young/old/female/inexperienced or what.

Yes that's true but I was thinking about an earlier comment about spoilt ballots never being a thing that made the news.

And yes my first thought was "The National Front got 34% of the vote? WTF?"

On a side issue - I don't think spoilt papers are binned after the election. I am fairly certain that they are packaged up with all the other voting papers to be stored in case of any official inquiries etc. Although I think they can only be re-opened following a court order. But technically I think they could be looked at again in certain circumstances.

I've spoilt my ballot twice, both for the Police Commissioners

I always vote, apart from in these. I didn't vote or spoilt my paper because spoilt paper would be counted towards the ballot and would allow the Government to say that the election was a success and the public wanted a say. I thought Police Commissioners were an unnecessary extra layer and waste of money, not voting allowed me to express that.

With regard to the EU referendum, we really needed a 'don't know' option. Although I don't know what you should then do with those votes. People were derided for not voting but personally I had much more respect for people who just didn't know what to put than those who just went down the polling station and just put a cross anywhere. These people needed an option.

Spoiling your ballot IS better than not voting because spoiled ballot numbers get read out in parliament.

However I still think voting is better than spoiling.