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?

Sorry but this is pointless, unless everyone does it which they won't then the MPs and parties won't care about it. I don’t see the point in it especially as women fought so hard to get the vote, for these things to work you need the support of everyone. 100 or 1000 people is not going to make a difference and I for one am not going to spoil my vote

If 60 or 70% did not vote, then political parties will come under great pressure to change the voting system.

When did it ever happen?

fuckmyuterus (what a vile name) you've got that wrong - what feminists want is to retain existing laws. It's Transactivists who want to remove women's sex based protections through a change in the law.

purple do you think what the suffragettes had in mind was a political system that no longer recognises women as distinct from men? How can women liberate themselves from patriarchy if we can't even speak about what it means to be a woman?

opinionated that's a total misunderstanding of the situation. There's no 'better' or 'worse' candidate here - just a full slate of people who belong to parties which no longer know what a woman is, and what a woman isn't.

If women don't exist in any meaningful legal sense, then there's no point having the vote, is there?

such an inflated sense of self importance that I expect laws to be changed for me

Um. That’s kind of what democracy is about.

If women don't exist in any meaningful legal sense, then there's no point having the vote, is there?

I don't understand this bit.

NONE of the ABOVE ...this is exactly how I'm voting it will be counted ...As a NO vote Protest votes - clarity and number
To establish a right to say 'no' in UK elections

1. your protest vote must be clear, and
2. the number of protest votes must multiply.

Ensure your protest vote is clear

• Don't put a cross (or tick) anywhere.

• Don't write anything else which could identify you, or create any uncertainty or excuse.

• Just put a single line through all the boxes

Write NONE across the ballot paper, so that your intention is clear beyond dispute.

It will then be indefensible to classify it as 'voter's intention uncertain

Well, that's what the organisers of that campaign would like. At the moment it will be counted as "intention unclear". And someone will be elected, because that is the purpose of voting.

And, as I said earlier, in a local election you can give yourself someone to vote for by collecting 10 signatures to get yourself on the ballot.

There is no such thing as a protest vote.

Just no votes. Spoiled, blank, no attendance, none of these count. There is no minimum number of votes for an election to be valid, AFAIK, so your protest vote is irrelevant on all counts.

If no candidate matches your one issue, then one of them will still be elected anyway.

Look for someone who can make a difference or who you can talk to and vote for them.

Go out and put pressure in ways that count, if it's that important to you.

You don't understand much as far as I can tell, fallen.

We've been through the '10 signatures' thing and I've already explained to you the deadline passed a long time ago. Also, you don't seem to get the sheer volume of hard work and personal power that goes into even a half arsed political campaign. Being a paper candidate is no more likely to change things or get votea than writing your name on the ballot paper in person on the day.

person power

Marking a ballot with XX may mean it gets counted. I'm sure a poll counter here said that once a ballot with a penis drawn in one of the boxes was to be accepted!

So whatever you do, don't write or draw anything in just one of the boxes.

Er... I'm not sure what I've said to merit so rude a response! I don't agree that spoiling a ballot is a useful protest, and I think I've said it politely. I genuinely didn't understand what you meant by that comment.

Why has no-one started the Mumsnet Party yet? I can't bring myself to vote for any party that lacks the intelligence to understand the difference between 'male human' and 'female human', or understand the importance of recognising that difference.

We need to think of an extra box , sign, promote it on twitter and Facebook and stand united with the suffragettes 100 yrs on

I like this idea. It doesn't matter if they don't do anything with the spoiled ballot papers if it's a significant number on social media.

I wasn't rude at all fallen just pointing out rather the way you keep making the same points (points I've already addressed) shows that you don't understand much about the issue. It's not about whether we agree, it's just tiresome having to repeat myself to the same poster.

The comment about the 10 signatures was to the poster who highlighted the campaign for "none" spoilt ballots, which is an ongoing one and so passed deadlines are not relevant, and I am well aware of the commitment involved in running a local election campaign if you actually want to win. However, if you simply want a name on the ballot to vote for, it is 10 signatures and some paperwork. More effort to be a paper candidate than a spoiled ballot, but more obvious.

So I made the point twice. Once to you (And I wasn't actually suggesting it for this election as I am well aware of the deadlines, but perhaps you were thinking of an ongoing campaign, and I didn't know you were familiar with electoral stuff), and once to another poster, to show she could vote for one of the above rather than none of the above. Anyway...

Why do you think there is no point in women having the right to vote?

I agree, Erishkigal.

Maybe the candidate name could be 'Adult Human Female', and the vote could be 'XX ?

Not sure what the name of our fictional political party should be though...?

Contact all the candidates directly before and ask them their position on gender recognition. Ask them to be very clear about how they'll vote on this, should it come up and let them know the answer you're looking for. You might find somebody you can vote for. If you're anti racist, steer clear of UKIP at all costs as they will count your vote as an endorsement of their racist agenda.

Fallen firstly, can you define what a woman is please? If nobody can define what a woman actually is, it's meaningless to assert that women won the vote in 1918.

That's a good idea. I have been contacted lots of times as a candidate to ask my opinion on issues. Mostly on traffic calming and bins rather than self ID, but such is local politics! Or the leader of the local party group on the council maybe, if you think they will vote together. Local councillors can be, independent, though...

I think I may write adult human female on mine.