Can we talk spoiling ballots (again, sorry)

[BadgertheBodger]

I am so horribly torn about what to do in the election

Despite tiny crumbs of hope in some quarters, I don’t trust any of the fuckers to protect women and children. I live in a very marginal seat which has swung between Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem over the last 20 years or so and to be perfectly honest we’ve always been lucky to have decent constituency MPs who have at least tried to do a good job.

Now though. Now I’m thinking far more in terms of the big picture and I want to either put my vote where it will make a difference for women and girls or I think I want to spoil my ballot. I don’t know why spoiling feels like such a terrifying option - does anyone else feel the same?

I remember the first time I got to vote, just turned 18, and I was so fired up by those women who had come before me and fought for my right to wander down to a polling station and have my say. I have never, ever missed since then, 20 years of voting in everything I could (including a few hold-the-nose votes).

Do spoiled ballots actually do anything? Does it rely on enough of us saying fuck this we don’t agree? And would that even change anything anyway?

Sorry to ask (I know there have been threads on this previously) but I feel utterly lost on this.

Do spoiled ballots actually do anything? Does it rely on enough of us saying fuck this we don’t agree?

Not really in my opinion. It's a bit like Russell Brand telling people not to vote which had little impact.

I must confess, that given the options on offer, I've considered spoiling my paper.

However, I just don't think I can do it, nor do I think it would have any impact.

You'd have to have a massive percentage of "spoilers" to send and real message and I can't see that happening.

As stands I'm voting for my least worst choice (based on a variety of policies) and also tactically wrt my constituency.

I've never felt this conflicted about my vote before. I'll tick the box, but it will be with a heavy heart.

Spoilt ballot papers get counted. They get scrutinised by the election agents and if any of them think that it should be taken as a vote, it is if the other side agrees. They don't really read the messages. They have a giggle at the knob drawings maybe.

If the vote was lost by a small margin, how would you feel?

It's the same as just not voting, frankly.

Spoiling the ballot papers would feel good, but the better way to improve democracy in our country is to vote. If more people voted, parties would have to start listening to us. Remember, when women first got the vote, none of the parties really gave a damn about us.

I have thought about this too. There are always numerous issues to think about when voting but my personal opinion is that women's rights aren't seen as a big issue by most so a win/lose won't be considered due to a MP/party stance. I think Brexit has been rumbling on and on and preventing anything else really happening. Stay or go, in whatever form, needs to be done. I am therefore going to vote with the party that reflects my views on this best. I will then email my MP frequently about women's rights, self I'd everything. No party seems to support women so I don't feel I'm 'letting the side down' voting for one over another.

Unless there was a huge social media campaign to making spoiling ballots 'a thing's, a spoiled vote will be a virtually lone voice and so, I feel, a waste.

Sorry for the errors in there

I haven't completely decided yet but not voting or spoiling the ballot paper is an option. For me I don't want to collude in the dismantling of womans rights, and in what is happening to children. For me it would be collusion. I feel quite uncomfortable with regards to people 'shaming' people for not voting.

I am not sure spoiling a ballot will send a particular message, as people have said above, but it is a valid choice if you cannot in good conscience vote for any of the parties on offer. It is definitely better than (and different too) not voting at all. Whichever party wins will take it that they are endorsed on all their policies. There is always something in a manifesto that you might not agree with and perhaps you can hold your nose about that, but when it is something that goes to the core of your beliefs then I cannot see how I good conscience you can vote for them. For me, this is the situation with all the parties in my constituency. The whole thing is awful.

Yes I think my worry is that it would be completely pointless. Such a difficult choice to make! I have emailed all the candidates with the WPUK questions which should be interesting (if any of them bother to reply). We never get anyone on the doorstep so I’m not going to get my views across that way.

Toomany that’s probably the best way to do it. Least worst option and then be a consistent voice in their ear. The trouble for me is that women’s rights have been under such an onslaught there’s a huge amount of heavy lifting to be done and if the party who wins isn’t committed to that then I don’t think it’s ever going to get done.

We’re clearly not going to see the results of the GRA consultation any time soon but I wish they’d been published prior to election campaigning. There may just well have been enough GC responses to highlight how important this issue is for many women.

Although you may feel that your vote does not count in the election, there's evidence that the media take into account the numbers voting for a particular party when giving them air time. It's apparently why we saw so much of Nigel Farage and UKIP.

Spoiling your ballot is such a waste of time. I've seen how they're recorded: it's a little table at the bottom of the reporting sheet that breaks it down into whether the ballot had too many votes marked, defaced etc. They don't record reasons that you may have put or mark it out of 10 for innovation.
If you saw it, I think you'd feel pretty let down.

Read through the manifestos as they come out and decide which aligns most closely to your opinions. You're unlikely to find one that exactly matches, but there must be one that you think you can agree with.

If you have a really good MP, you might want to ensure they stay your MP (we need all the good ones we can get with the present shower!); likewise, if your MP is appalling, vote against them - why reward poor work? That's how the Christopher Chopes of this world get elected time and again.

I've noticed that it's usually the centre to left who are encouraged to spoil their votes, citing an array of reasons designed to appeal to their principles. That, in itself, makes me suspicious of all this advocating the spoiling of ballots.

Unfortunately my Conservative MP has just stood down. I probably would have voted for her as she was v switched on to the issues I raised and was oh so cautiously in agreement when I raised anything GC. I’ll have to see what the rest of them say

I tend to think that when there is too much emphasis on strategic voting, not voting for the party you like because they are two far behind, or never spoiling a ballot, it tends to undermine the whole process in the long term. It just lets the same old people keep doing the same thing.

I was going to spoil mine in our recent election, after the party I planned to vote for lost its mind. I didn't in the end, a last minute decision in the polling booth, and I'm not sure it was the right one.

They may not record why you spoilt your ballot, but they also don’t record why you voted for a particular party and which aspects of their policies you do an don’t agree with. I get the fact that no manifesto will ever entirely align with your views, but for me the situation is far from this. Every party in our constituency has something I fundamentally disagree with with and I would feel sick if voting for the least worst on other policies meant that my vote was seen as endorsing a policy that was then enacted.

I think it's different in a marginal seat. I'm in a true blue Tory haven so I can either add another vote to the significant majority for the conservative candidate, or spoil my ballot.

I'm considering it - a lot depends on whether Labour (the leadership not Dawn Butler) explain their manifesto clearly. Where I live the Lib Dem vote is strong and if there's still a chink of daylight - however narrow - between their plans and Labour then I will vote Labour to keep them out. But if Labour backtrack I will probably spoil. If I do, it won't really make any difference to me how the vote is counted. It will simply be because I don't want to show support for any party that intends to reduce rights for women and girls.

Spoilt ballots can be a protest or could just be an idiot who can't put a cross in a box and leave it at that. The umber of idiots is fairly constant, but the protest spoilations will vary, and a large number of knobs and helpful suggestions will be noted as a thing. Individual spoilt papers count for nothing by themselves.

I'm also really really torn - if there was a great number of spoiled ballots wouldn't that raise questions and get recorded or noted higher up?

Nationally of you have percentage of turn out and then party percentages the public would see the differences reported in the figures.

I just want the Tories out but the LDs will sell my rights down the river.

I imagine myself wavering until the very last moment. I think about it a lot, it's very stressful.

In my seat, 57% of the electorate votes Conservative , and 57% voted Remain. The MP is an ardent Brexiter. So I can vote for the party which plans to dismantle our country, or a party which plans to dismantle our rights. Either way, it won’t make a blind bit of difference to the outcome. All my vote will do is express support for that party’s policies - which I cannot do.

So I intend to spoil my ballot with "Protect women's rights. Transwomen are men." And post a photo of my ballot on this thread.

Spoiling your ballot is such a waste of time

Spoiling the ballot is the act of integrity of someone who genuinely wants to vote, and therefore makes the effort to turn out at the ballot box. For many of us spoiling the ballot is the only conscienable thing we can do given parties and candidates we simply feel we cannot vote for.

The vote has to mean something and not just be a tick box exercise. If you are voting for a party than you are effectively supporting its manifesto. If the issue was not so important and defining it might matter less.

Times have changed and many of us are no longer prepared to vote for the 'least worst' candidate - just so we can say we voted. I've certainly done that in the past. But no more.

If senior people within parties feel unable to make their voice heard, how on earth do you think voting for a policy you disagree with is going to hep or matter? They will continue to think people will vote for them anyway.

I've thought long and hard about whether to spoil my paper but thinking about the bigger picture I'm going to vote Labour.

It seems to me that women are impacted mostly by 'austerity' measures,whether this is due to being carers for children or relatives and friends or with those with disabilities or by working in the areas related to these groups, 'austerity' has taken its toll,and I can't justify not voting against this or leave the fate of these groups of people to others.

I'd love to vote Labour...but I just can't. Not only the gender Self Id issue ( & and I have no respect for the ability or performance of Dawn Butler as women's minister); but there has also been the issue of bullying local constituency parties- and nothing has been done to stamp it out.Louise Ellman was my MP, and whilst I didn't agree with her on everything, she was hard working. She was treated disgracefully by some in the party.

Labour are fielding lots of young Momentum candidates with naive and 'woke' ideas. I'm really not sure what the Labour party is about these days. It has fractured across so many lines.

I am also very concerned about the authoritarian zeal which seems to have taken hold of labour. Ok

Not sure where that Ok came from!

I appreciate that spoiling my ballot may mean nothing to the powers that be. But it means something to ME. If Labour come out and confirm that by single sex exemptions they actually mean sex and not some vague, indefinable whatever then I may reconsider. But not without that commitment at the highest level.

I've never not voted so I will but I think I'll be spoiling my ballot paper. I just can't bring myself to vote conservative and every other party standing is giving away my rights whilst ignoring me.

I haven't worked out what to say and my drawing skills are non existent