Advice on spoiling ballot

[JellySlice]

I'm firmly in favour of Remain.
I am also firmly Gender Critical.

Not only is there nobody I can vote for, but, as I am also in a firmly Conservative constituency, there is hardly any point in voting!

Is there a way to spoil my ballot that clearly demonstrates my inability to exercise my democratic rights?

If it's close and there is a recount, the party agents and maybe the candidates will want to look at all the rejected ballot papers. That's when they get to read the friendly messages and admire the artwork.

I wanted to ask, though - if you were to write a GC message across the voting slip, and you somehow made a mark in just one of the boxes while doing so, would they count that as a vote even if you had made it clear in the message that you had not intended it as such?

No. I work in the counting room and I can assure you that a vote has to have a VERY clear intention , in order to be counted. An obviously accidental mark on one of the boxes would simply count as a spoiled vote .

Just that, for my own personal moral values, voting for a party that doesn't actually want the support of people like me is not something I am prepared to do. Why should I give them the benefit of my vote when they don't think I deserve a public voice or to even keep the rights that I currently have?

Exactly.

I was going to vote LD, because all the parties were more-or-less equal in their acceptance and support of trans ideology, and I hoped that we could extract ourselves from one mess and then address the other looming mess. But then the LDs told us that they did not want my vote, that they refused to represent my interests in this democracy, that they refused to defend my human rights.

I cannot vote for them now.

I cannot vote for a party led by a racist misogynist with a fantastical classist world view and a never-ending money tree.

I cannot vote for another party that wishes to destroy our economy for fantastical, racist, classist ideologies.

I disagree with those saying spoiling your ballot is an insult to those that caught for the vote.

In my opinion staying at home and not voting does that. Making the effort to go to the polling station and consciously say I don't feel represented is still utilising your right to vote. Your just not voting for anyone on the card.

Surely , if you want to make yourself heard, you should vote tactically so that at least it will make some difference.

Who for??

I have no one to vote for.

Tories - brexit and awful.
LibDems/Lab/Lib/Green - erasure of women's rights.

I can't vote for any of them.

Protect Women's Rights / NO Gender Self-ID

I like this zebra, it's clear and to the point.

I had wondered if it was a waste of time and then I saw a Glasgow candidate complaining on twitter after a previous ballot that she had seen 'one of those horrible transphobic stickers' in the polling station on a ballot paper so sometimes the message does get through!

The suffragette's fought for the right for women to vote to allow us some semblance of equality with men when it comes to choosing those that will act as a voice for the people in parliament.

The right to vote affords us to make a choice whether we vote or not.

100 years ago women had no such choice. However I do not think the sufferance movement would agree that anyone should be pressured to vote if they do not wish to.

As I will not vote for any party then I will spoil my vote. I do not care if someone high up pays attention to it or not. It is my personal choice.

I think people need to respect that some of us will be spoiling our ballots and stop with all this 'don't spoil you ballot' business telling other women what to do.

Surely , if you want to make yourself heard, you should vote tactically so that at least it will make some difference.

Whoever I vote for, it won't make a blind bit of difference in my constituency.

Whoever I vote for, all it will say is that I support disenfranchising women and dismantling safeguarding.

*The right to vote affords us to make a choice whether we vote or not.

100 years ago women had no such choice. However I do not think the sufferance movement would agree that anyone should be pressured to vote if they do not wish to.*

A ballot spoiled with intention is still a vote

That would only be true if MILLIONS did this. There will not be a majority of people who spoil their ballot!!

Spoiling your vote is the same as not voting at all.

Use it to change the current situation. Progress takes time.

Please don't spoil your ballot paper because its pointless. It's like pissing in the wind. It won't be seen or recorded and is a waste of time.

The only way spoiled ballot papers would ever cross into the media was if everyone wrote exactly same thing like "none of the above with a cross in the box next to it and there was mass MASS participation.

Someone should have started a none of the above party that was just to record a protest vote and fielded local candidates everywhere.

You are wasting your time spoiling a ballot. If you want to make a statement, vote for someone else. Most seats will have others standing outside the main parties independents, local people, monster raving looneys. If you want to record a protest vote for one of them, be recorded as a vote against the parties and help them save their deposit.

Whoever I vote for, it won't make a blind bit of difference in my constituency.

I don't think you can say that on this election at all. People are angry and voting massively against type. Even "safe" seats could turn out Brexit/Remain shocks. Be part of that and vote for anyone that is closest to your views politically.

I am gutted about this. I think I will need to spoil my vote as well. I live in a safe Tory seat, the current MP has no chance of being ousted.

I can't vote Tory because I don't want my vote counted as part of a mandate for Brexit. I want to stay in the EU.

I can't vote labour or lib dem because they don't give a shit about women and think men's feelings are more important than women's rights, safety and plain old material reality. They would both put self-id through. Also the Lib Dems have actually told us they don't want gender critical votes.

Green Party - as above. Plus extra "oh fuck no" points for the Challenor mess.

Brexit party - obviously not.

As far as I know, there are no independent candidates standing.

So I can either not vote, or spoil my ballot. Fuck.

No self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party who ignores her sex.
Susan B Anthony

I think people need to respect that some of us will be spoiling our ballots and stop with all this 'don't spoil you ballot' business telling other women what to do. *
*
Excellent words by @CeridwenTheWitch , DorothyParkersCat

Spoilt ballots are only seen very briefly. You’d need to write about 5 words in a sharpie to make an impact even on the 3 people who’ll see it.

But better to spoil the ballot than not to vote. Definitely.

Apparently tomorrow all the candidates have to be registered and will be published online.

@YourOpinionIsNoted

You can't really have no opinion. Of all those parties you list, you know that it is not possible for there to be no MP in the seat. There has to be one.

(BTW You may not know if there are independents until you get to the ballot because most independents don't have money or activists to campaign for them.)

So of all of those main parties, which to you is the least bad? You must have some view - Ok they are all bad but who would you rather be PM bearing in mind that it is not possible for there to be NO Prime Minister? Who is the least bad to be your MP?

That's how you should vote. Please don't think its definitely a safe seat because it's only if people turn out to vote that a safe seat is no longer safe.

I know people who've voted for X or Y party for 40 years who are going to vote differently this time.

Vote for them.

I think people need to respect that some of us will be spoiling our ballots and stop with all this 'don't spoil you ballot' business telling other women what to do

LOL - supreme hypocrite telling other women what to do and not express their view !!!!

I think freedom of expression allows anyone to express their opinion. Others are free to disregard it. Tell people not to express their view is censorship.

If you want to record a protest vote for one of them, be recorded as a vote against the parties and help them save their deposit

That's a very good point. It's a visible, unambiguous "none of you lot" vote.

The least bad would be Tory. But I'm in a Brexit-voting, Tory-voting stronghold, with a pro-leave cabinet minister who toes the party line. I do not want my vote used as evidence of support on the ground for Brexit, which it inevitably would be.

So I think i will spoil my ballot. Not a decision I'm taking lightly, and I'll probably still be debating it at the ballot box.

www.votenone.org.uk/protest_votes_count.html

It's my understanding that if the form isn't filled in this way, the spoilt vote won't count as anything..