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.

@BoneyBackJefferson I didn’t say you weren’t politically active, I asked what you think a spoilt ballot says and what power you believe it wields to bring about change?

But marvellous assumptions about me. I am very active in my community, volunteer locally and feel politically informed. And I’m still going to vote. Why do you assume I’m not politically active?

There isn't a special magical way to spoil your ballot that makes everyone suddenly take your views into account. Likely the candidates and/or their agents will see it to agree it's definitely spoilt but will not take any further action on whatever slogan or mystical symbol you put on it. Though I suppose I should warn you to be careful not to draw a penis within a particular candidate's box in case their agent manages to argue it's demonstrating clear voting intention.

Vote for the candidate you would be least upset about winning. Then if you think politics should be different, do something about it instead of complaining from the sidelines.

For the record, I'm not a "political lackey", I'm a normal person who wants things to be better and so I volunteer a small amount of my free time to campaign for and within a party which isn't perfect but is moving in the right direction.

The incumbent party in my area is Labour. Maybe you should research it first.

peachgreen

You make the assumption that there is a tactical vote to have.
There are many constituencies that are safe seats. Even if everyone got behind one party it wouldn't unseat the current party/MP.

For those that say it would make those in power notice due to the reduction in majority, its bollocks due to the FPTP system it makes no difference at all.

I’m not one of those that feels she has to vote because of history, I feel I was given the option to make my own choice to vote or not vote and I’m eternally grateful for that.

Spoiling your vote is basically spitting on the suffragettes’ graves imo

Saying that women are non-men is actually spitting on tbe graves of suffragettes. Freedom of choice.

Utterly idiotic.

Just stay home.

I count votes before.
Your votes gets count as you actual voted.
Then they split the votes into whom it is for.
Your spoilt vote gets see by a counter.
They just stick it in a pile, and hand it back.
The piles are then counted into 1000's and stacked.
To show who won.
Your vote is simply one in a pile, no one cares.

@OrangeSlices998

I've already posted what I think spoiling a ballot means.

and I didn't say that you weren't politically active, I said that I was probably more active than you.

As for what change it will bring, it will bring the exact same amount of change as not voting for one of the main parties.

mummmy2017

So what you are saying is that they are treated in exactly the same way as all the other votes?

1 vote won’t make a difference but I’ll still bloody vote, no individuals vote counts more than any other. We don’t only have a worthy vote if it guarantees us the result we want and/or we cause a huge change.

Oh my days - I KNOW this. Why are people so insistent that you must be stupid or wilfully ignorant or in need of educating on the subject? Of course I know that every vote counts individually and only once (I always vote) and of course I know it may not always cause a huge change - but there's a reason why people are NOT voting. The arguments about the suffragettes just wind people up - they don't make people feel persuaded to vote. People stay home because they feel the system is broken whatever they do. So then telling people who DO care (and wish to somehow demonstrate that) that they "may as well stay home", " may as well vote for the incumbent", etc etc is incredibly dismissive of the issue.

For the avoidance of doubt:

I know a spoiled ballot will not effect any change no matter how you do it.

I object to the idea that spoiling your ballot is not equally as effective as voting for an opposition party in some super-safe seats in a general election, because first past the post means your vote for the opposition is equally as useless.

It is not the same as actively voting for the incumbent, or being one of the non-voters.

No.
They get count and just recorded as spoilt.
No one cares about spoils, they just care who won.

Keep on sneering and ignoring people who aren't you. It has gone sooooo well in the past five years. It's a winning formula you can be proud of.
I'll say again. I have voted in every election since the 1980s. Local elections, general elections, every single one. I don't need patronising fucking lectures about suffragettes.
I have no one to vote for. There is no least worst in my constituency.

I'm looking likely to spoil my vote at present. I live in a very safe seat, so I'm used to my vote barely being a blip in the results, whatever I vote for. I haven't yet seen a kernel of policy that's vote-worthy against the critical flaws putting me off any of the parties.

I am registered to vote. I have voted at every opportunity of my adult life (inevitably pointlessly against a safe candidate). Feeling compelled to vote for a party that I do not want to represent me is not democratic, that's the way elections work in countries like Russia or China. I am happy to continue to vote conventionally at a local level, as I did in the European elections. I hope to be able to vote properly when Brexit has an established direction on which credible and desirable policies can be formed.

I'd rather be a spoil statistic than contribute to low turnout.

Meanwhile within a mile across a constituency boundary, every vote really does count.

First past the post sucks (and yes, I did support electoral reform in the other referendum)

mummmy2017

Its a vote, it gets counted and recorded just like every other vote.

You and others may not like it but it is the truth.

They will be put on a pile with the people who couldn’t manage to fill the form in properly, and then counted.

Probably no one will ever mention how many there were in that pile, and no one will ever know if you were protesting or just not clever enough to fill in the ballot properly.

bellinisurge

They don't listen, and that is why we are in the mess that we are in.

When you count, no one talks.
No one waves a spoilt vote around and says look what is written.
The box is unlocked and tipped onto a table of about 10 people.
We turn votes the same way and stack in tens, once we have 100, they put a band on it. Check same number of votes as box days. Recount if need be .
Then we recount and look too see who got the vote, your spoilt vote is looked at by one person only. We are not allowed to talk. This goes with others.
So long as the box count is right, that is it for your vote.
The vote may be counted again, but it is not read, unless there is a recount.

ShinyGiratina has said it with a lot more eloquence than I managed.

Vote for the NOTA party I.e. None of the above and include a box to tick

All spoiled papers are noted but vote does not count

Probably no one will ever mention how many there were in that pile, and no one will ever know if you were protesting or just not clever enough to fill in the ballot properly.

It's recorded. You can go look it up online for the last elections for your constituency, if you like.

Spoiled votes are in a pile and counted.
Tory votes are in a pile and counted.
Labour votes are in a pile and counted.
As are the Greens, the Lib Dems, the Brexit Shitshow Party and all the independents.

If you go to the polling station and 'use' your vote it will get counted.

fedup21

Probably no one will ever mention how many there were in that pile,

Untrue they are counted and called.

and no one will ever know if you were protesting or just not clever enough to fill in the ballot properly.

In the same way as voting for any party. Especially those that are not likely to win.

mummmy2017

No one waves a spoilt vote around and says look what is written.

Who is saying that they do?

That would be those that think that those spoiling ballots don't understand.

I count at elections and honestly no one cares if you spoil your vote.

Candidates CAN look and challenge them IF they want to but usually there's so many tables counting votes that they don't see most of them.

Spoil your vote however you like (tick no box, more than one box, write identifying information on it) or just leave it blank. They all get shoved to one side and counted in the same pile. They're only counted to make sure we have the correct number of ballots to match the number of people who signed in to vote. Even unintentional spoiling eg an obvious vote for one candidate but someone has written their full name for some reason gets shoved in the same pile. This is why the figures aren't usually reported, they're not all 'spoilt ballots'.

No one reads the messages people write, we don't have time. If I happen to notice one with a threatening message I might bring it to the attention of the table supervisor but it's unlikely to be taken seriously enough for anything to happen.

Really it's just a waste of your time. Oh, and if you draw a penis next to one candidate's name that counts as a vote for them

HopefulFor2020

Really it's just a waste of your time.

Just like voting for anyone else but the incumbent MP in a safe seat.