Unprecedented numbers of spoiled ballots delay council election counts

[theOtherPamAyres]

I understand that every single spoiled ballot had to be individually scrutinised and adjudicated upon, last night. There were tens of thousands of them - further details are awaited

Interestingly, the papers have assumed that all spoiled ballots were about Brexit. Indeed, there are a lot of ballot papers shared on social media showing just that with the hashtag #spoilyourballot.

But I reckon that this one came from a politically 'homeless' woman.

I spoilt mine

Interesting, therefore, that UKIP have lost nearly 100 seats...

Just shows why it's important to put a clear reason for your spoilt ballot. Otherwise the media will just make it about whatever the media want to make it about.

I put:

Woman = adult human female.

I spoiled mine regarding Brexit - first time I've done it, not particularly happy to have done so but there we are.

Euro Elections will show whether or not the vast bulk were Brexit related or not as there'll be a wider array of options available, from the Brexit Party to Change UK, neither of which were on the ballot for the Local Elections.

Interesting.

At our last meeting we had a discussion about spoiling our ballots in the best possible way.

We got told that ballots like in your photo would just get binned (one proposal was to write underneath say Patrick Harvey or Alex Cole Hamilton's name is a misogynist - those two actually called us cis women during the Census debate in the Scottish Parliament and the way they spit out that word really emphasised the insult to me).

Anyway, that was the suggestion but some women with election experience said they'd just get binned, so we then discussed whether voting for a candidate and then writing something GC-related on the ballot as well would work and we got told these ballots would just go in that candidate's pile.

From your post however, neither of those statements would seem to be true.

I would dearly love to know how to spoil a ballot in a way that forces people to look at it and register what it says (not that I think it will convince anyone anyway, but if enough women do this, maybe they'll pay some attention to losing the votes of female voters).

It must be difficult, as a political party, to not have a position on Brexit. A group like the Greens, for example, could conceivably contain many people who supported their core values but had varying views on Brexit. I imagine a lot are remainders but plenty of serious leftists are leavers for one reason or another.

Remainers, of course, not reminders.

I had two ballot papers. On the first I wrote women do not have a penis and on the other I wrote no to self id- woman = adult human female. There were no independent candidates, only the three main parties.

My partner and I crossed through all the little boxes and wrote 'Woman = adult human female'.

They don't 'bin' any ballot papers. Spolit one are counted separately and any that are ambiguous (may indicate a vote for a candidate) are set aside in case the vote is very close. Those ones are then agreed between the presiding officer and the candidates if the vote is close.

spoiled ballots are all shown to candidates and their agents at the count, similar process (but separate) to ambiguous ones.

A penis perfectly drawn in the box of a candidate at the last general election counted as a vote for that person!

No vote hear, but I probably would have spoiled and written Brexit across it all.

I spoiled my paper.

I'm glad this being widely reported. Even if, this time around, the majority were about Brexit, it's providing good advertising that this is a newsworthy way of registering a protest.

No vote in my area but I would have done exactly the same. I won't vote for any party that treats women as a subspecies lesser than men, as all our current parties do.

It is every voter's democratic right to spoil their ballot.

It's just a pity that if "None of the above" got the most votes, the seat does not remain vacant.

It was a very strange feeling this morning, watching the news and having no feeling about which party won. Hearing that both labour and cons lost seats cheered me up, but I wasn't pleased to think of greens or lib dem ( or ukip ob's) profiting. My ballot paper came today for the EU election, I'll be looking for independent candidates or spoiling my ballot.

Did anyone have any interesting independent candidates? I'd vote for Rowan, Datum or Red toothbrush any day! Lots more of you too.,

I understand that every single spoiled ballot had to be individually scrutinised and adjudicated upon, last night

That is always the case.

Where did you get that ballot paper from?

If there's a recount, the candidates' agents will argue over the validity of the spoilt papers with the returning officer.

I'm not sure why the LibDems are crowing; it's pretty obvious they only picked up seats by default.

On a similar note the Greens will have picked up those protest voters who remember the Lib Dems u-turn on tuition fees.

Electoral commission's guide to 'doubtful' votes: www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/87699/UKPE-doubtfuls-booklet.pdf

Why are they only showing the spoilt papers with deliver Brexit on them. There were definitely remain profilers as well as the GC ones. Actually I am not that surprised...

In Spain there is always a blank paper to show you don't vote for anyone...perfectly acceptable.