To let people know how to spoil their ballot?

[HoofWankingSpangleCunt]

Today 13:59HoofWankingSpangleCunt

This election has really brought it home to me how uncomfortable I am voting for any of the three main parties. I don't want to vote for the local Independent on a donkey sanctuary ticket* just because I feel I have to vote for someone. If I do that my concerns about the other parties goes unnoticed.
So tonight Matthew, I'll be spoiling my ballot. It has to be done a certain way to count as spoilt. If enough of us do this then voices will be heard.
advice on how to do it correctly
I'm going to pop my AIBU Vote Button cherry on this thread as it seems apt.
*Or whatever the local issue is.

Subject:
To let people know how to spoil their ballot?

Message:
This election has really brought it home to me how uncomfortable I am voting for any of the three main parties. I don't want to vote for the local Independent on a donkey sanctuary ticket* just because I feel I have to vote for someone. If I do that my concerns about the other parties goes unnoticed.
So tonight Matthew, I'll be spoiling my ballot. It has to be done a certain way to count as spoilt. If enough of us do this then voices will be heard.

I'm going to pop my AIBU Vote Button cherry on this thread as it seems apt.
*Or whatever the local issue is.

This is a misconception that has been done to death over the past few years. Spoilt ballot papers DO NOT count for anything apart from a figure work exercise to make sure all the numbers tally!!! They are simply removed during the count process and if the ballot paper is unclear they are adjudicated by the Returning Officer, but if something else is written on it they are put in the Spoilt pile. What's written on it may be given a cursory glance but the election staff are far too busy at the Count to take any notice of any protests and merely cast them aside. At the end of the Count they are bundled up and stored with all the other ballot papers - I will repeat they are NOT counted and nobody scrutinises them so you are actually wasting your time by thinking they count or that your protest is taken into account in any way shape or form!!!

You need to vote for a party that will change to proportional representation.

Make proportional representation a stump issue and push for it.

Wringing you’re hands, singing the ‘ain’t it awful, and nothing ever changes’, being short sighted and spoiling your chance to effect real change will get you what you deserve.

Make proportional representation an issue for candidates.
The first past the post system doesn’t work... support a party that wants to change it to a more reflective model.

I think anyone who requires assistance to spoil their ballot paper probably shouldn't be voting.

I think the aim is that political parties will be forced to look at their policies and manifestos again.
How will the parties know what changes those who spoiled their ballots are looking for? They could all alter their manifestos and still none could appeal. As opposed to for example, if lots of people voted green then other parties would know they need to focus more on environmental issues, or in the case of the independent party in your example, donkeys? I get that you could make it clearer through protests etc. but that would be the same whoever you voted for.

When the count is read out, nobody gives a count for protests. At least not at results I heard. The line thru plus NONE sounds like it would categorised as "uncertainty" due to multiple marks, same as if voter ticked 2 out of 5 boxes when only one box allowed.

The first past the post system doesn’t work... support a party that wants to change it to a more reflective model.

Which party is that, then?

I have voted Lib Dem for years on this issue. Pretty much my whole voting life.

They’re happy now to ‘join an alliance with the Brexit Party, Greens and UKIP’ on the issue. But that’s as far as they’re willing to go.

No one had appetite to change it.

I am disillusioned.

How childish, in a country where about 70% of the electorate don’t vote anyway you want to go in to a polling station & spoil your ballot like a spoilt child having a tantrum because the ice cream van ran out of flakes, then flounce out thinking “yes, that showed them”.

It proves nothing. No one cares that you don’t know who to vote for. They’ll just write you off as a loon & get on with their lives.

If you feel that strongly about it become a councillor & get involved. Or move to a country without free elections, or any elections and see if you fit in there.

I'm going to write my letter to Father Christmas on mine.

I got absolutely slammed on here yesterday for saying I was going to spoil my paper. Despite explaining why the most likely candidate for my vote had let me down on a very important local issue. And why none of the other candidates was likely to attract my vote.
I was a) spitting on the grave of women who came before me b) entitled c) not really interested in politics and d) not a true believer in something or other.
I concluded Fuck Off, it's the mess in my constituency about which you know nothing; I'll do what I think is best not what you think is best.

I don't understand why anyone would be encouraging people to waste their vote bu spoiling it in this election. FFS just vote whoever you think is the least worst party as there is no-one else on offer.

How childish, in a country where about 70% of the electorate don’t vote anyway you want to go in to a polling station & spoil your ballot like a spoilt child having a tantrum because the ice cream van ran out of flakes, then flounce out thinking “yes, that showed them”.

But I don’t want to not use my vote. I’m not apathetic, I’m not part of the 70% that can’t be arsed - I want to register a protest.

I want to register my displeasure at all the bad options.

I’ve never felt this way before - it’s frustrating to be told it’s childish. I’m not sure it’s any more ‘grown-up’ to vote for a party or candidate you don’t believe in.

Perhaps if there was a ‘none of the above’ option some of the 70% would turn up to tick it.

Perhaps if there was a ‘none of the above’ option some of the 70% would turn up to tick it.

And then who would take the seat? If enough people vote 'none of the above' will they wheel-in 'Secret Candidate X" who had been waiting in the wings all this time?

Perhaps if there was a ‘none of the above’ option some of the 70% would turn up to tick it.

And then what?!

To spoil your ballot paper is an insult to those who fought for you to have the vote.
Universal suffrage is a right that was paid for in blood.

There is not a magic land full of wonderful politicians who share all your views and will bring in all the policies you want, if you are waiting for this you might as well wait for a unicorn to show up: it will never happen. unless you are an member of the ERG in Mogg's constituency

Adult life is about compromise- find the party/ politician whose views are most like yours or who is the least worst and vote for them.

If this means holding your nose and voting tactically, then so be it.

Nosquirrels, you need to get involved in politics before the election

No one gives a shit about spoiled votes, and your views will be shredded and never registered. It a total waste of time.

Hassle the candidates! Let them know what you want before the election.

Flouncing in the voting booth with your bad ass sharpie makes you look like a fool.

Use your energy and your passion to make changes in a way that gets results. Empower yourself.
Engage in the political process and force changes there.
Contact your candidates. Go to the hustings and don’t be shy about heckling!

But for Pete’s sake use your vote in a way that counts.

But no ones interested in the protest you all think you’re making. No politicians wringing their hands about spoilt ballots, a spoilt ballot isn’t a vote for them, nor is it a vote for the other candidates so why would they even consider it?.

Your all the new green ink brigade.

Is that you Russell Brand?

No one is interested in your vote if you vote Labour in a strong Tory seat or vice versa. Not sure why that isn't a wasted vote by definition of many on here.

And then what?!

And then we’d have to have another election, and perhaps one of the parties would take some actual notice of voting reform.

Yes, yes - hassle your candidates, tell them what you want, use your vote ‘wisely’, ‘in a way that counts’.

I have spoken to candidates, I have written to my MP, I am engaged in the bloody process and I am so disillusioned that - FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER - I would prefer NOT to vote ... despite a lifetime’s principles and suffrage and whatever else.

I’m not some idiot who doesn’t understand the process, the issues, the outcome of spoiling a ballot. I don’t think it will make a difference. But neither will my protest vote for anyone else.

Nobody will "count your intentions" if you spoil your ballot. You have clearly never been to a count. No one will care how witty or rude you are, and no one will pass on your wonderfully sage political wisdom anywhere, it will just be spoilt, that's it.

From the 1910 Labour manifesto:

"Let all petty differences go to the four winds. Now is the time to unite. The poverty of one is the poverty of all. Let those who suffer join to remove their suffering. It can be removed in no other way. The Labour Party appeals to you to stand by yourselves and vote for the Labour candidates."

I'm fed up to the back teeth of people who are selfish enough and comfortable enough in that selfishness to not see what is at stake here. You may not feel that any party is perfect. People aren't perfect and our world is far from perfect, that doesn't mean we shouldn't aspire to the best world we can within the framework we have. A vote for nothing is a vote for more of the same at untold cost to the most vulnerable in our society.

No one is interested in your vote if you vote Labour in a strong Tory seat or vice versa. Not sure why that isn't a wasted vote by definition of many on here.

Because it's still a vote. A 'safe' seat will always be a safe seat whilst those who oppose it choose not to vote against it.

I think the aim is that political parties will be forced to look at their policies and manifestos again

Given that it's in the Tories' interest to suppress voter turnout, I doubt that very much. They had 36% of the vote in 2015 and 330 seats, then 42% of the vote in 2017 and lost their majority because turnout in swing seats was higher. They really don't care if turnout falls, as long as pensioners in swing seats come out to vote for them.

I actually think spoiling your ballot paper is not meaningless, although I've never done it personally.

I think if you feel strongly enough, for whatever reason, that the choice of candidates is unacceptable or too limited, then spoiling your ballot is a way of expressing that, while making it clear you did want to vote. It's not so much that your spoilt paper will be counted, or not just that, but more that your attendance at the polling station will contribute to the turnout statistics, which are significant, sometimes extremely so.

BUT IT WOULD BE BETTER STILL IF YOU VOTED TACTICALLY!

but they don't have to record it as spoiled unless it's spoiled a particular way. That's really the point of my post.

This, on the other hand, is bollocks. A spoiled ballot is a spoiled ballot, whether it says 'knickers to the lot of you', 'Cummings is the devil's jizz' or just has a smiley face on it.

The tactical voting website says there's no point here, the Tory majority is safe. However, my vote can hopefully:
Decrease that majority
Help another candidate get their deposit back

And that is the best I can do. If elections have shown us anything recently it's that people who disagree with you WILL vote so even if you are just maintaining the status quo, you need to do so. And even if you think they are all terrible, one of them has to be less terrible.

Otherwise we'll find ourselves in a world where bad hair is the only criteria for leadership. Oh hang on...

Grow up 🙄