Local elections: for the first time ever, I don't think I can vote for anyone

[PoliticallyHomeless]

I am in an area (London) where the local elections are coming up in May. I have always been a big proponent of using your vote because
a) It's a hard-fought for right that we shouldn't take for granted
b) I always think that if you don't vote, you don't really have the right to bitch about the result, and the way things are.

Because of FPTP, I have on numerous occasions held my nose, and voted for the least bad option. Now however, I am at a point where I genuinely don't see who I can vote for. Self-Id is not the only issue on which I vote, but women's rights is a deal-breaker.

So, the options:

1. Conservative. I met my (Conservative) local MP the other week, to discuss Self-Id. It was actually quite a good discussion; he is clearly a bit TERFy on the quiet, and we were broadly in agreement on the issue. However he made it plain that for now he was going to sit back and let Labour have this fight in public. Also he is an arch Brexiteer (I am a platinum card carrying Remainer) and has a pretty dodgy voting record.

2. Labour. Great choice. Except for the Brexit problem. And the Women's problem. And the Anti-semitism problem.

3. Lib Dems. I was a member but quit due to their unquestioning acceptance of the "trans women are women" mantra, and the pretty vile things their affiliated accounts have posted.

4. WEP and Greens. They have brought in the TERF Finder General, so that's out.

5. Communists. The Morning Star actually had some fairly gender critical pieces, so that looked promising. Unfortunately their Brexit line is lemming-tastic. Full speed ahead over the cliff, so we can bring in a Marxist/Leninist state.

So... it really goes against the grain for me not to vote, but this a real quandary.

WWYD?

Feeling similarly disenfranchised. Almost as if we got given the vote for 100 years and that was deemed enough.

Another one here feeling completely disenfranchised.

I'm going to deface my ballot. I haven't decided what to write yet.

No idea. But I'm in the same quandary.

So far, my only option seems to to scrawl 'none of you because you all hate women' across the voting card. Which will achieve nothing at all.

Don’t bother defacing your ballot - I used to count votes, it just gets put in a spoilt papers pile, no one will read it or care. Best to vote for the least worst option.

Vote for the least worst. You have to weigh things up and make a value judgement but not voting does nothing whatsoever. They aren’t going to see your ballot defacing slogans, they will also not have any reason to think or care about you as a voter if you aren’t voting for them or are unlikely to vote for them, so they’re not going to change any policies as a result. I am voting labour despite my concerns and despite being particularly strongly concerned over antisemitism (as I’m Jewish) but I think, nonetheless, that they’re the best of a bad lot. And that my voting for them will not prevent me from campaigning over issues I care about either.

Same here

Do find out who your local independent candidates are and how they stand... that might be an option.

I'm spoiling my ballot. First time ever.
They do announce the number of spoiled ballots, so if there is an upswing someone might get the hint.

renewbritain.org/britain-today/

Have a look at these people here. Don’t know how many candidates they have. Perhaps stand as one?

Thanks for the Renew Britain link - will check it out in more detail.

@Palavra - I do agree with your points. A spoilt ballot paper does nothing, so I will probably have to weigh up the options and go with the least bad option. Not sure yet who is standing; hopefully will get more info nearer the time.

Saddened to see so many others are in the same boat, although at least I know I'm not alone.

What I really hope is that I get some canvassers on my doorstep. I generally avoid them, as I've usually decided who I'm going to vote for. But this time round, it's an opportunity to engage with them and make my feelings know.

To all who are in the same boat - Chin Up . At least we have people like Amy and the #ManFriday team raising the issues. Here's to things getting better.

Same here op and I'm totally aware of just how useless spoiling my ballot would be. The problem is that, right here and right now, it still feels like the least harmful option. I'm another one praying for an independent candidate with half a brain.

I feel your pain. I think I'll vote Lib Dem - their trans position is annoying but across the board (and on Brexit) they are much more sensible than the Tories and Labour.

Spoiled ballots are counted. Are they categorised? e.g., between people who voted wrongly (ticking more than one box) and people simply scribbling on the ballot? What if those of us opposing self ID (and the systematic theft of women's spaces), and who simply cannot vote for any of the parties in these circumstances, had a single unifying symbol or slogan? Is there any prospect that those ballots could be quantified separately and so the main parties would know that women have had enough of this?

Been looking at this site:

www.votenone.org.uk/protest_votes_count.html

Don't spoil your ballot. The candidates and their agents will see them, but that's because they get to see all spoilt ballots so that everyone is in agreement that there's definitely no clear voting intention which should have been counted (eg a tick next to a box but not quite in it).

To take Brexit as an example, either they don't agree with you, or they'll have made the calculation that they'll gain more votes than they lose over it, or they do agree with you and are as frustrated as you are about their party's position. Either way it won't go any further - there's not a central database of reasons ballot papers were spoiled which the parties consult when deciding policy for next time.

With it being a local election, can you look into the individual candidates for your ward and find out what they as individuals stand for? Even if you don't agree with their party's national policies you might find someone whose local priorities (bin collections, school capacities, adequate street lighting, grass cutting in parks and cemeteries, public transport, so many things!) you agree with. And then you'll at least have not wasted your vote.

Signed, a former Labour council candidate who is frustrated with her party for exactly the same reasons you are.

Echo they are not categorised. Your thoughtful comment will unfortunately be lumped in with confused people who tick multiple boxes, and the idiots who draw a wang.

Sorry, one more post on this thread.

The direction of most political parties is driven by their members. If you are looking for and not finding a left wing party which represents your views, join one, be an active member, and help to push it in the direction you want it to go in.

There are plenty of people in Labour - to use the example I know about - who are worried about Brexit, who are horrified that our leadership is doing such a poor job of tackling anti-Semitism, and who know it's essential that trans rights don't cancel out women's rights. Right now we need more of these voices in the party to drown out those who are trying to use the party to re-fight a battle they lost 25 years ago.

You will never find a party that agrees with you 100% on everything that's important to you. Democratic politics is necessarily about compromise and you can either join in with that or you can sit it out and be ignored.

I intend to vote as I would otherwise and send a postcard on the day to party HQ, advising that this support is time-limited and cannot continue for much longer if they continue to be complicit in the denial and silencing of women's concerns.

That's disappointing, political

I take your point on voting on local issues (and I more or less did that in the General Election, voting for a really good local Labour candidate and trying to ignore the shit show and doublespeak at national level in all the parties). I live in a true blue stronghold, so it never feels that my vote counts anyway in any type of election. I always have, though, haven't missed voting in an election in 30 years. Until now. Drawing a wang seems quite apt in the current circumstances.

I wouldn't vote for any political party endorsing self-ID. So, until one of them comes out of the woodwork, I will be spoiling ballot papers.

We have never really had a significant ballot-spoiling movement in this country so how it would be reported if there were huge numbers of spoiled ballots is a moot point. I see no reason why women with nowhere to go shouldn't try it.

I am glad I live in a Conservative stronghold and will be voting to keep my local council blue. My local MP has been very supportive re all things "trans" and it gives me hope that they will see what is happening with other parties and realise that it is a non starter considering all the grief caused already even before legislation has been passed.

There isn't a least worst option in my ward. They all support self ID.

I hope its a big pile of spoiled papers.

politicalnamechanger
The trouble is that standing up in a political party and arguing for the rights of women for privacy, dignity and safety brings down a shedload of abuse and roars of transphobia. Look at the current threads about Kiri Trunks and the suggestions that she is unfit for post - because she's gender critical.
Until and unless one of the political parties stands up and insists that we live in a democratic society and ensures that women can make our voices heard without our jobs being threatened, it's a pointless and frankly dangerous exercise being in the Labour party or the Lib Dems.

Why don't you stand yourself as an independent? There's no deposit in local elections and it's pretty easy to get ten signatures on your nomination papers.

I just can’t in all good consciousness vote for any party. My local council is Labour (and always will be) and home to some pretty right-on bromentum types.

I feel sick at the thought but spoiling my ballot is my only option. I’ll be writing before and after to let each and every party know why.

I can't stand. If I was well enough I would.