To instigate a mass ballot spoiling?

[NobodyToVoteForNow]

With the local elections a few weeks away, and with a heavy heart, I've had to admit to myself there's literally no political party that recognises women as a distinct sex class with distinct legal protections under equalities legislation. And of course the added racism of the two main parties rules them both out anyway.

Knowing that candidates often have to help officials decide what spoiled ballots 'mean' - (do they represent a vote cast for a particular candidate or not?) gives me hope that this is a small way to get the message across at a local level.

I'm going to spoil my ballot with a hashtag that demonstrates the bitter irony of this occurring a hundred years since female suffrage. I'm a bit short on catchy slogans though, so if anyone else is thinking along similar lines, perhaps we could pool our ideas and come up with something fitting?

You can call voicing my opinion mansplaining if you like but I'm not a man so it won't get you very far!

tygr you may call it 'daft' - but women are used to being called all manner of things.

I think we all understand what our foremothers went through to get us the vote and none of us would be spoiling a ballot lightly.

Whatever we do, or dony do, whatever we say, transactivists will jump on something and go mad with it.
It's a democracy and as such it's perfectly legal and reasonable for us to protest in whatever small way we see fit about things which directly affect us. Trying to demean something being mooted from sheer desperation isn't helping.

Not voting is just that spoiling your ballot paper is quite different it's a protest vote, like writing in 'None of the Above.'

Spoiling your vote is still "not voting" because you're not casting a valid vote.

And thus, you can't moan!

*opionated

What do the Tories do for women?

Make them Prime Minister!*

4 times
The only reason the Tory men let TM be PM is that none of the likely lots wanted to deal with the shitty stick that is Brexit - far too much like hard work for little or no reward. They’ll bin her and install a man just as soon as Brexit is done, and she’ll be blamed forever more. She is not there because they are championing women’s rights. not true gove boris crabb and fox all ran for prime minister. weird that in 100 years labour have never had a female elected leader

I don't think theresa may being pm is good proof that conservatives care about women's issues or equality for women across the board. Certainly doesn't appear to be the case, with austerity measures hitting low income women the hardest. But if you're not at the receiving end of it, I can see how it can be ignored.

I'll be spoiling my ballot, too. I have no candidate to vote for, for the first time ever.

However, this pragamatism did make me laugh:
If all the parties are erasing women, you might as well vote for the party that's going to erase women and empty your bins regularly......

It depends where you live and the voting habits and demographics locally as to what the outcome of a protest might be, but the thought of women spoiling votes to make a point and the result being a load of smug, mostly male, mostly white, mostly middle-aged Tories being elected as a result makes me shudder. It seems that this could be a protest with unintended consequences that make things worse.

I have done a count, and I thought I would let you know... those spoilt ballots don't get read. They just get put in a pile.

And what happens if the spoilt votes are higher than ones for those standing?

Oh let me guess, all standees will say something like...

1. The voters are stupid/misguided (and should never be allowed to vote again).
2. Vote rigging, by a non standing UK party.
3. (please insert your choice of country) is interfering in our domestic affairs.
4. We demand have to have another voting session.

Doubt if they would say...

a) They do have a point.
b) I did warn my party, that this would happen.
c) Oh shit, my "shadowy associates/backers" aren't going to be very happy.

Actually do we need politicians?

Actually do we need politicians?

I'd say the the results of letting the great unwashed have their say in a couple of recent referendums indicate that we do need someone who knows what's going on in these positions.

Knee Jerk reactions & a lack of understanding or the ability to take a long-term view are what you get from asking the public for their view.

That needs to be mitigated.

Steam trains, I can say that as a candidate I very much did give a shit about the spoilt ballots. When turnout is low and seats are marginal every vote counts. Plus, some of them were hilarious and brightened up a very long stressful evening

Steam During the count, they are indeed put in a pile. Then they are viewed and recorded by the returning officer and the candidates to determine if the count staff have categorised them correctly.
It doesn't end when the count teams finally push their chairs back and go for a well deserved cup of tea.

Many local councils are 'safe'. There are very few councils which are in danger of going to another party.

I live in an area where Labour is voted for regardless of how badly that've performed.

I'm definitely going to spoil my paper - but what with?

Some hashtag or slogan that can be traced back to a recognisable campaign?

Or just scribble?

TerfAndSerf I will be using #SexNotGender as that's my current concern and following the guidance here:

www.votenone.org.uk/protest_votes_count.html

Thanks. Food for thought.

People campaigned and some died for the right to vote, not just women, men without property too.

To spoil your paper or not vote at all is to spit on their memory.

If necessary vote for the least worst. But bloody well vote.

Personally, i believe that not voting at all removes the legitimacy of the winning Candidate.
If 60 or 70% did not vote, then political parties will come under great pressure to change the voting system.

I dont think the same would happen with large numbers of spoilt papers, especially as we are starting with less than 1%..

jasjad1973 Unfortunately at local elections 60% to 70% don’t vote!

What sort of changes do you want?

I want:

Do away with the automatic right to a postal vote.
Forget online voting which is inherently insecure.
Voting over two days at the weekend.
Stop putting the voter’s number on the counterfoil of the ballot paper and the number of the ballot paper on the marked-up register. I don’t wear a tinfoil hat and I don’t believe illegal matching is going on; but it worries some people so why not make it impossible?

jasjas1973

Nearly 13 million voters abstained from the Brexit referendum. The difference between Remain and Leave is only a little over 1.2 million votes

Local elections are notorious for their low turnouts and yet that doesn't stop politicians claiming victory on the slimmest of margins.

Politicians are shameless and will take any victory. Any victory, by even a handful of votes is enough.

In recent years, General Election turnouts remains at around 2/3 of the whole electorate.

I was more referring to GE as i think local elections are pointless, councils have little power.

PR.... its democratically wrong that UKIP (a party i despise btw) can attract 5m voters yet get not a single MP but whatever your political view, your vote should count and under FPTP it does not, this way, views can be challenged in Parliament, instead most peoples ideas on UKIP is on question time.

Where i live, the only party that will get in is is the Tory candidate, meaning i have to vote for a party i dont fully support or not vote at all.

Lots of people think not voting, either by not turning out or by spoiling a ballot, will make politicians think. Meanwhile, the person with the most votes is elected and does the job, and those who did not vote had not even the small amount of influence they might have had. There is year on year of low turnout, and the response has been to change the voting process to one which is more open to abuse, not a change in politics.

Oh, another thinly-veiled anti-trans thread.

Spoiling ballot papers? Wanting new protection for women under EQUALITY legislation? Can't MNHQ fund a way to confine these people to the feminism board?? I say this as a woman who disagrees with self ID, but also who doesn't have such an inflated sense of self importance that I expect laws to be changed for me.

*find- rage mistype!

Spoiling a ballot paper is the same as not voting as far as the results are concerned.

I'm fairly sure this isn't what the suffragettes had in mind...

Far more useful to lobby the successful MP with whatever agendas you have.

*People campaigned and some died for the right to vote, not just women, men without property too.

To spoil your paper or not vote at all is to spit on their memory.

If necessary vote for the least worst. But bloody well vote.* yes the right to vote not to be forced to vote a right is something you choose to do ie right to free speech does not mean your required to give your opinions on everything