Spoilt votes - post them here so that the parties/papers can see them

[MrsFogi]

I know there is a split of opinion about spoiling ballots vs voting for the least bad option.

If you do decide to spoil your ballot it feel free to post a photo of it here (be careful not to include any information that identifies you and in particular not to include the ballot's unique identification number) in case any of our loitering journalists wish to pick up the story or in the hope of giving the parties/candidates some pause for thought.

In case it is of interest (and you want a place to post your views for/against spoiling ballots), there have been a number of threads about spoiling ballots, a few links below:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3751902-Spoiling-my-ballot?pg=2 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3749890-Can-we-talk-spoiling-ballots-again-sorry
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3743237-advice-on-spoiling-ballot
Advice on Spoiling your vote

My MP and I are on first name terms I contact her so much.
She agrees - and does nothing.

Same. My MP was the only candidate who did not want to remove women's sex-based rights. A Tory. My choice, if I wanted not to vote for the removal of my, and every other woman's, sex-based rights was to vote Tory or spoil my ballot.

People who are turning up to hector us, clearly Labour members or supporters, can blame their own fucking party for abusing and threatening women, for insulting us with their deceptively-framed manifesto "promise", and completely ignoring our concerns. Labour made the choice to pursue this policy, knowing full well how unpopular it is with women. If they cared about the poor, the disabled, the NHS, etc. they would have put aside the middle-class liberal identity politics and focused on getting women's votes.

You can look at that vile tweet of Owen Jones's today to see another example of the deep-rooted misogyny that Labour members level at us, while still expecting us to vote for them.

I've been a candidate in parliamentary elections 3 times - the spoilt papers are shown to agents (and normally candidates as well) with the returning officer having them grouped into categories such as unclear intention (e.g. 2 crosses), included personal information (your vote is discarded if you put your name and address on it), blank and the "message" type ones - e.g. "I vote for Elvis".

There's no guarantee that anyone will take action or reconsider their views as a result of seeing spoiled papers but it's really not true (IME) to say that they will be binned/ignored completely.

I look forward to seeing all the coverage the spoilt papers get in the press tomorrow.

You've been repeatedly told that is not why people have spoilt their ballots. Repeatedly. Either you are very hard of understanding or have a real love of hectoring people who don't vote as you demand. Which is, of course, par for the course for many Momentum members.

@Justhadathought your comment is ridiculous as I am a professional, trade unionist, mum and possibly older than you think. I’m allowed to have a different view and be all of those things.

Please stop isolating women that have different ideas and views. All I’ve said is spoiling a anonymous paper won’t make a difference. Unless we start protesting for the spoilt papers to be read and the reasons ect be counted it is just wasting people’s time.

*Hopeforthemen^ If you had any respect for women you would not be on here telling us what to do.
We will carry on being non compliant. I can keep this up for every election. You need to look at your own conscience.

If it's such a waste of time - why are you here?

Hope, if our politicans can remove women's rights under our noses with the GRA, where will it end do you wonder?

If women and men are just 'cisgender' where will it end? Where will abortion rights and maternity rights go?
How often will the NHS be sued because a woman was attacked by a man on her ward?

If the GRA passes, the state will become emboldened. The men that hold the power can take more away, until....

Until we have Gilead and then none of this will matter because women will fail to exist.

Wake up.

I find it interesting that the current labour strategy is to yell at, belittle and insult everyone for voting wrong, rather than try to adopt policies that appeal to voters. It's an approach driven by arrogance.

Also tickled by the attempt to guilt trip us re. wasting the time of the vote counters. I imagine that being told not to waste the gentlemen's time was a common experience for the suffragettes, so I rather like that one.

Spoilt mine thanks for the idea MN vipers.

Wrote: None, protect women's sex based rights no self I'd.
Got a photo what needs to be redacted for it to be shared? Would love to share on Twitter/Facebook but I'm identifiable on them.

YourOpinion so true.
I find this picture sobering. Every single time.

what am I afraid of

Waking up to a conservative majority.

It’s that fucking simple. That’s why I’m upset that people are choosing to actively do this and encourage others to do the same. If you don’t understand that then fine. I hope you still feel this was a worthwhile thing to do if that’s where we end up.

@MsMcWibble good question why am I on here 🤷‍♀️ All
I said was spoiling your vote was wasting people’s time. I didn’t realise I had come on to the feminist forum and I never will seeing how hostile and awful some of you are against people who have a different opinion.

I didn’t realise women’s rights meant we all had to think the same.

My conscience is clear thank you.

That’s why I’m upset that people are choosing to actively do this and encourage others to do the same.

I suggest you address these remarks to political parties who are so woeful on women's rights and child protection that they are losing votes. It's a buyer's market. They're the sellers.

maiden and many of us are terrified of waking up to a majority party who plans to erase women’s rights in a matter of months and the serious consequences of what self ID actually means. No way can I be complicit in voting for a party that does that.

This isn’t about objecting to spoiling papers at all, you are just annoyed we haven’t used our vote to keep Tories out.

I hope you still feel this was a worthwhile thing to do if that’s where we end up.

I will. Thanks for your concern.

I really hope you're spending 90% of your energy tweeting and emailing the parties who are responsible for our inability to vote for them. Otherwise this does seem a bit like attacking the turkeys because Christmas got cancelled...

And if some beardo approaches me on the way in, they get one of these.

You can’t tell it’s a feminism forum but you expect us to all line up to put crosses in boxes you deem right.....

Fine, then we wasted our time. Why do you care? If it's to get Tories out then this is not the way to go about it. Hectoring people just gets their back up.

"Won't someone pleeease think of the vote counters??"

Actually if the sky falls in and Armageddon comes upon us because I didn't vote Labour then I will still blame Corbyn for his woke-blind dogmatism. Not myself.

I fucking hope the lib dems miss our seat by one vote. I fucking do. Jo has been here this week.

Just need to convince dh not to go back out in this horrible weather.

I’ve been in a horrible mood all day, I was going to vote for the least worse option but I just couldn’t do it so I went & spoilt my ballot and I felt better ever since:
None
No self id
Transwomen are men
Single sex spaces are safer for women & girls

You cant tell your on a feminist forum? You are beyond belief now. You seem able to read our reasons for spoiling (yet ignoring the reasons) but you cant read the top that says talk, feminist chat.
Sure.

Haven’t read the whole thread, but I’ve just spoilt my ballot. I’m actually a member of the Labour Party but couldn’t bring myself to vote for them, particularly since my CLP issued a directive stating TWAW. Must get round to resigning my membership.

If you wake up to a Conservative majority, go and blame Swinson and Corbyn for being so fucking awful that people like me (nearly 50 and born and bred labour) will not vote for them. That neither Labour or the Libdems could come up with a leader inspirational enough to look better than that fuckwit Johnson. That neither of those leaders had the balls to be open and up front with their plans on GRA/EA these last few years, either to allow women's concerns to be heard or to allow their own canvassers/candidates to know what the fuck is going on. Direct your blame at the correct people.

I did it. Spoilt my vote.

My seat is contested between conservative and Lib Dem’s. Greens have a look in but won’t win. I did vote for policies questionnaire and it came back majority green. I would have voted green but couldn’t bring myself to vote for them because of their self ID policy.

I wrote a big NONE across and drew a line through all the boxes, then wrote on my paper (inspire by a PP on this thread) No party supports women. Women matter. No to self ID.

I was the only person in my small village hall polling station at the time and the two ladies at the desk could blatantly hear my pencil tap tap tapping as I wrote all that. Feel glad that I did as I did. Thank you to all here for not throwing women under the bus!