Is it better to spoil your paper or just not vote?

[cremeeggsonboxingday]

I am really struggling with deciding who to vote for tomorrow in the local election. To be honest, I can't bring myself to vote for any of them. I'm just wondering what would be the best way to make an impact. Would a low voter turn out send a message or would it be better to write exactly what I think of them all on my paper?

Yabu = don't vote
Yanbu = spoil your paper

Spoiling your ballot is completely pointless as a protest vote, it's basically allowing the incumbent through on a free pass. Nobody cares what your reason for spoiling is, they just get ignored.

Vote for the least worst option, vote for the novelty candidate but do actually vote for someone, especally on a local level.

No - you can check here:
electoralcommission.org.uk:Elections in your area Enter your postcode to find out if there's an upcoming election where you live.

nationalworld:Is there a local election in my area in 2022? Map of UK seats being contested, and how to find out candidates

Voters will head to the ballot box on May 5 in elections to elect:
Every local authority in Scotland and Wales
All 90 seats on the Northern Ireland Assembly
142 borough, district and unitary councils across England
South Yorkshire’s regional mayor
New unitary councils for North Yorkshire, Somerset and two in Cumbria
Local mayors in Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford
Bristol referendum on abolishing elected mayor

I might vote for you @amillionrosepetals , but only if you can answer the following question without starting your answer with

thats a very complicated question

its important we take everyone’s views into account

its not something I feel I can comment on

i think I am only here to deal with local issues

i try to look on both sides of the question

So, amillionrosepetals:

what is a woman?

YANBU.

Some voters in Northern Ireland are planning to spoil their ballots as a protest against all the candidates. They are using their 'vote for Noah Donohoe' instead to call for a new and independent investigation and a public enquiry into 14 year old Noah's disappearance and death in June 2020. It is also to protest against the police application for a Public Interest Immunity certificate, (to keep over 600 pages of information secret), and a coroner's investigation only for Noah instead of a full and proper police investigation.

The lack of support from some candidates has been shocking. Others have been there wanting the photo opportunities with Fiona, (Noah's mother), and paying lip service to her campaign to get the truth about Noah's death and justice for him, but then failing to publicly commit to a new independent investigation and public enquiry.

Here's a current thread about it:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4537366-aibu-to-want-to-know-the-truth-about-this
You can find a link to the petition to support Fiona, currently with 305,988 signatures, in the OP of this thread:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/petitions_noticeboard/4525759--THREAD-2-Will-you-spare-five-minutes-to-help-the-lovely-Noah-Donohoe-get-the-justice-he-deserves-and-to-support-his-mummy-Fiona-in-getting-the-truth-about-what-happened-to-her-beloved-son

The person who will ultimately sign off the PII certificate is Brandon Lewis, MP for Great Yarmouth/Secretary of State for NI.

This isn't just an issue for Northern Ireland. The use of PIIs by the police has allowed serious offenders to murder again elsewhere. One example is Robert Howard, who was free to move between England, Scotland, the RO Ireland and NI for 40years, committing serious acts of sexual violence and the murder of women and children.

Sorry, I think I have tagged the wrong poster, I am sure someone said they sometimes add themselves onto the ballot paper. I think I will add amillionrosepetals anyway, because I like the board name and it will cause a moment of confusion among the counting staff. ( one of whom is my DD, though not in my borough luckily)

candidates and their agents always look at spoiled papers (in my experience) in the hope that they can claim the vote as theirs. i once saw one where the voter has drawn a clowns head next to every candidates name. it must have taken them ages.

I don't have a local election tomorrow, but in our last one (when the Brexit shitshow was in it's hayday with Teresa May) there was a lot of protest voting for independents or opposing party candidates. Tories did very shit and it is a Tory stronghold around here when it comes to the GE (not so sure about it next time though, my Tory MP has a terrible voting record and the one in my neighbouring town is such a massive right wing nob he is in danger of losing his seat at the next GE).

I don't think spoiling your vote really does anything unless it's a very coordinated effort across many people. Better off voting for the best option for your town. If it's a GE, I don't think spoiling your vote will do much either, just vote for the opposing party in your area and hopefully you get a hung parliament or a party without a strong majority. That will send a better message. I think we've all seen what a strong majority leads to in politics now...it's not the best option.

If you want to make a statement about the shitness if politics right now just write to the politicians.

Vote. Don't spoil your paper either. No one cares. Do you think that a candidate gives two shits that you've written "Tory scum" or whatever on your ballot? You're filed under "nutcase", nothing more.

Pick any another candidate such as Greens and vote for them. It's unlikely they will win but they won't do much damage should they get some seats.

Pick any another candidate such as Greens and vote for them. It's unlikely they will win but they won't do much damage should they get some seats

Aside from to non-men’s rights.

I am finding it impossible to hold my nose and vote least-worst so spoiling is the only real option for me. I won’t stay home and not vote, I just can’t. But I can not vote in person. I’m quite fond of the idea of spoiling my ballot by leaving it completely blank. Then I’ve done what I can for my own conscience.

Not that it matters here, it’s so one party it’s almost comical. And as I said upthread no candidate has told us what they stand for. Were we not politically aware then it would be conceivable we wouldn’t know anything was going on local election wise.

This will be my approach.

Please don't spoil your vote, tempting as it may be. You can vent about the useless lying twats on here instead.

Vote Green, as the only way to force electoral change and get some degree of democracy is to vote for the party that can't get elected atm.

Fuck off Boris and Keir if you or your bots are reading.

This with knobs on.

Unfortunately, having been driven out of Labour by antisemitism, it seems that the Greens are even worse on this issue :(

I'd rather vote Tory than Greens as the local Green party are way too extreme to be taken seriously, such as wanting a complete ban on private cars in the wider city centre area (so you'd be unable to drive to the city hospital or the railway station or the shopping centres and supermarkets) - it would be delivery vehicles, buses and taxis only! That policy alone has alienated most car drivers.

My understanding is that the Greens go along with Stonewall, so won't be voting for them. I will probably write "respect my sex if you want my x" on the ballot paper. It will be between Tories and Libdems here, won't vote Tory and Libdem canvasser declined to answer my question of what a woman is!

I wasn’t aware of the Green Party’s record on antisemitism. Damn it. It’s back to finding independent candidates for me then.

The Greens aren’t going to get in, outside of Brighton, so their policies being too green doesn’t bother me. Nor does their view on gender. I draw the line at racism though.

I have spoiled votes in the past. You have to make it obvious it's spoiled rather than mistakenly messing up the vote. My belief is that it would indicate to candidates that I was willing to turn up and spend my time in the process of voting - but not for any of you fuckers. My vote is here, you just have to show me why it's yours. It was up for grabs and you all failed.

But you have to be sure you want to do that. I'm a swing voter and if there is a pressing matter that I care about, more than I care for the minutiae of the other stuff I might otherwise not vote for a candidate for, then I vote for them. Not big stuff that I can't swallow on moral grounds - That's ruined ballot time.

Neither option achieves anything. Just vote for the least worst option.

I think I've only spoiled my ballot paper once. This was an election for a police & crime commissioner (which shouldn't exist anyway) and all of the candidates were representing political parties (who shouldn't be influencing policing) rather than independent candidates.

In all other elections I've been able to choose a best or least-bad candidate, although I haven't yet faced a ballot paper on which all candidates were totally unfit. If I absolutely couldn't vote for anyone I would spoil my paper, as this is at least an indication of discontent rather than apathy. Not bothering to turn up when you're capable of doing so is inexcusable.

If you really, genuinely, can't bring yourself to vote for anyone, then spoiling your ballot is slightly "better" than not voting at all.

Only because the demographics of people who arrive to vote are collected, and policies are targeted at the sort of people who might vote.

If you want people in your demographic to count as "people who matter to politicians might vote" then you, and people like you need to turn up at polling stations en masse, and outnumber the other demographics.

The reason Govt policies favour the older and richer people is that they are the ones who rock up and vote.

But overall, staying home

"Women died for the right to vote."
Women died so we'd have the choice , not so we had to.

Not read the whole thread but spoiling is slightly better than not voting .

Please , please do not get your ballot and then leave without putting it in the ballot box . It makes the count at 11pm an impossible nightmare as the amount of ballots issued must equal the amount counted when we open up the box .

In our borough all spoilt ballots (plain or with a message on ) are seen by the returning officer & candidates / agents for that ward when adjudicated. They will also be seen by those watching us count and sort as ballots are sorted face up

Local councils run vital services which children and families depend on and you are paying over a thousand pounds a year in council tax. Why would you not want a say in how your money is spent and what services you get. If there was no real difference between candidates they would not be fighting hard for your vote, your candidates are local people who want to make a difference, they get little money for what they do.

Yeah, it is gutting for me too. They've always been my 'protest vote' and my mum's too.