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

How laughable is it that the pomo-addled go around calling other people middle class?

(Rough as fuck, me, I'm afraid.)

I agree that identity politics is middle class. But the worst effects of its ascendancy will absolutely be on economically deprived and otherwise vulnerable women and children.

For all those people who would have voted Labour or LibDem but who aren't because of self-id, I strongly suggest you write to them (cc in HQ too, why not!) and spell it out in single syllables that explain betrayal of the female sex is what killed your vote for them.

Don't let them get away with blaming any loss on nasty people voting for other nasty parties.

(I have done this and not heard a peep back, despite sending follow ups. Treasonous cowards. Can't even stand by their own policies)

Nothing happens when you spoil your vote but something might happen if you vote. History shows politicians don't care about those who don't vote - look how the EU citizens living either here or in Europe have been treated these past few years!

This is the most important general election in our lives - this is the feminism chat group and I can't believe that you wouldn't use your hard won right to vote (and in my hope consider using it to oppose 5 years of having PM Johnson). You may not have achieved gaining the necessary level of interest in this matter - I don't need to tell you how long it took to get the matters of slavery, women's right to vote achieved.

I am going to spoil my ballot paper. I cannot in clear conscience vote for any political party who do not recognise that woman = adult human female. I have debated this with myself for so long and reached the conclusion that a spoiled ballot is the only option I have.

Nothing happens when you spoil your vote but something might happen if you vote.

Platitude. As has already been explained on this thread, under an FPTP system, it depends where you live. And a spoiled ballot from a politically engaged electorate is a very different matter to the alienation of not turning up at all.

And, as repeated over and over, non-compliant women derive their power from that non-compliance. Otherwise, their concerns are batted aside.

This is a feminist board, FFS.

Fptp system guarantees that a lot of votes are essentially wasted. So if you live in a safe seat place, you might as well draw some tits or cock or whatever slogan you want. Won't make any difference but might make you feel better.

The point has been made on the other threads but beards repeating - every spoilt ballot will be reviewed by the candidates or their agents, who will be looking for a way to claim it for their tally. So they will be seen.

Also, I wanted to post this story about the wank/not wank ballot paper as it came up on a previous thread and no-one could believe it was true.

www.joe.co.uk/politics/voter-writes-wnk-all-over-ballot-paper-puts-not-wnk-next-to-greens-deemed-acceptable-as-a-vote-233070

History shows politicians don't care about those who don't vote - look how the EU citizens living either here or in Europe have been treated these past few years!

Not sure what EU citizens living in Europe has to do with anything. If you are talking about EU citizens living in the UK, they were denied the vote on Brexit because referendum rules are not the same as general election rules, and precisely because MPs cared about what they thought and might vote for. They were not non voters.

I don't need to tell you how long it took to get the matters of slavery, women's right to vote achieved.

How did voting help win the women's vote? Those men who were allowed to vote were not voting in favour of suffrage. Women won the right to vote through a combination of civil disobedience and their huge efforts to keep the country going in WWI.

Slavery was not abolished through voting. It came about through a combination of Parliamentary reform (the 1832 Act to get rid of rotten boroughs), the American Revolution that resulted in Britain losing it's grip on its plantation interests which had been served through slavery, and the industrial revolution that switched economic focus away from the American colonies to the domestic northern industrial cities. Plus civil disobedience and campaigning by slaves and religious groups respectively.

So, once again, explain to me how voting for the parties advocating self ID will bring about the end of this policy being pushed? Bear in mind that people within these parties who have argued against these policies have been hounded out. They don't want to listen to their own, so how will anonymously voting for these parties do anything other than endorse their self ID stance?

And, btw, as this is the feminist board, you really don't need to patronise the women on here about the importance of voting. Many of us will have voted in many elections and campaigned for/endorsed political parties over many years. Do you think we are spoiling ballots in some sort of hissy fit? Or do you think we might have poured over manifestos, listened intently to the leaders for a glimmer of hope and good sense on self ID, lobbied MPs/candidates to look at this issue from the point of view of the concerns of women, and finally concluded that voting for these parties would be total anathema?

I can't believe that you wouldn't use your hard won right to vote (and in my hope consider using it to oppose 5 years of having PM Johnson)

I'll ask again: would you rather I voted Tory or spoiled my vote?

PJ I don't think you'll get your answer as like you and others have suggested, those patronising us not to spoil are not actually able to suggest a party deserving of our vote.

I posted my spoilt paper last week and whilst the decision wasn't an easy one I now feel better about it than just picking "overall least shit option ". I've made it pretty clear on the paper why not one of them will have my vote.

Just popping this here again as a reminder of why to me a spoilt paper is a valid choice ...

PJ I don't think you'll get your answer as like you and others have suggested, those patronising us not to spoil are not actually able to suggest a party deserving of our vote.

Nope. It's just the same old misogyny, internalised or otherwise, trying to force compliance on women.

You may not have achieved gaining the necessary level of interest in this matter

RTFT

As a middle class woman I’m fairly reassured by the fact I can at least side step some of the impact that self ID bill causes. I don’t have to be at work and use unisex toilets along side a man, I have a long term stable marriage where I’ve never had a reason to think I’d need to use a woman’s refuge or homelessness shelter along side a man who could pose a risk to me, i have never been to prison nor do I expect I ever will, so I don’t need to worry about rapists in the same cell as me. If my nhs services refuse access to a female hcp then I can pay enough for a smear if necessary (although no garentee either but at least money can have influence). I can vote with my money and go and join the ballentine gym where the owner says he will ensure men don’t get access to the woman only floor/change rooms/toilets. I can afford the petrol to get there if my local gym goes unisex. I am already stuck home educating one child, if I have to do so with my other girl when she gets to secondary ages because boys are allowed in girls toilets then I will do. I’m also educated enough to advocate for my daughters, and to put in carefully worded complaints letters (using links here and fpfw etc) to gps and so on as needed. I have a partner who supports me and understands these issues and how they will effect our daughters. We probably only count as lower middle class, but we are most definitely mc enough for me to avoid the worse effects of the self ID law on safety. If it effects my daughters sports at school we can pay for sports classes outside school where we can choose ones that are likely to be girls only, or where I can pick up and take them home to shower or pay from private sports like horse riding or private swimming lessons. I can vet any tutors I pay to come into our home, so I know our daughters aren’t hearing twaw bs and I know the common views of many of our home Ed network and who I’d happily trade child care and education with, and who I won’t.

The erasure of women as an identifiable class effects me massively, as ‘women’s’ vote will now contain men’s views, and the whole thing is terrifying on so many levels, but personally I will be fine I’m sure. Poorer women who need mh hospitals, dv refuges, homeless shelters, prisons and so on are the most vulnerable group. Women who need to work all hours and can’t opt out of using unisex toilets and change rooms are more vulnerable.

My daughters have multiple disabilities (as do I) and the concern for how little support they will get long term is huge, the erasure of women's safety will impact them much more than me personally. As all austerity, nhs cuts, education cuts effect my daughters much more than me. The idea that self ID is a middle class issue is ridiculous. Prisons and homeless shelters are not filled with mc class women, mh facilities are much more likely to be filled by poorer women, and while dv effects all classes equally i at least know if this was to become as issue after 20 yrs + of a very safe relationship I own another property I can use and have my own money in my own accounts, as well as access to our joint one. I’m aware that’s not true of all mc women, but for myself personally I know I can escape some of the risks self ID bill brings in.

Erasing sex based protections by making ‘women’ something any man can opt into by signing a form effects all women, and will forever once it’s in.

Again, I will spoil my ballot because I can’t let any candidate think I support their pro self ID stance. It counts to me, I don’t expect it to count more than that. I am sending a message by spoiling though, I don’t expect the ballot to be read by anyone who matters (I will write NONE) but I will email/have emailed all candidates and explained I was spoiling and why. I have explained to candidates I would consider based on other policies that this one (over arching) issue has cost them my vote. I have explained that if they are willing to go against their party line and vote against self ID they will get my vote in future. Anyone spoiling their ballot should do this. If everyone spoiling their ballots do this then there maybe some candidates who wake up and realise that next time there are a lot of votes up for grabs for whoever stands up against women’s erasure.

Also, seeing as someone brought up the fight for women’s vote-

Self ID bill erases women’s right to vote on women’s issues. There will be no way to tally and evaluate how natal women vote when ‘women’ will now be a group that contains men. There will be no way for women to discuss women’s political issues in women’s protest groups now because ‘women’ will always contain men. There will be no way to evaluate how many women mps they are and how they vote on women’s issues now as ‘women’ will always contain men. Any evaluation of how parties appeal to women will now be meaningless as ‘women’ now contain men. Supporting self ID, even by voting for a ‘lesser’ evil (because they take any vote as support for all policies) means putting women’s voting power back to pre suffrage. We can still vote sure, but we can no longer use our shared experiences of being women as a way to put voter pressure on parties, because all ‘women’ will contain men. We can vote on what we feel matters for our husbands and sons and brothers sure, but I don’t care for an nhs that only meets the needs of men, or an education system that has more than enough money because girls are no longer safe there. Once self ID is passed every political party will have 50% women (only they won’t), women will feel safe sharing unisex spaces with men (because women=men) and women’s issues will all be resolved (because women=men and they tell us they are). All of which makes women’s votes meaningless. So I’m sure suffragettes would be in full support of any and all protests against this.

I don't think a spoiled ballot is the same as a non-voter.

An (intentionally) spoiled ballot sends the message that you are engaged with politics but feel no-one represents you.

A non-voter could mean anything from 'can't be arsed' to 'forgot it was today' to 'crashed the car on the way to the polling station' and everything in-between.

Politicians can disregard a high number - a third to a quarter of the electorate, approximately, based on previous turnouts - of non-voters, they couldn't (or shouldn't) do the same if a quarter to a third of the electorate all deliberately spoilt their ballots.

Which is why I'll always say if you don't know who to vote for then at least spoil your ballot rather than not vote.

The only wasted vote is the one you don't cast!

The idea that self ID is a middle class issue is ridiculous.

It's only a middle class issue in the sense that gender identity as something to vocally agonise and navel gaze over particularly flourishes in the lecture halls of Woke-ademia. You're right that the effects of this having been taken up so enthusiastically by major political parties will disproportionately be felt most by working class women and those who end up fleeing domestic and financial abuse.

If I put my cross correctly in the box, but write a comment on the paper, does that count as a vote, or a spoiled ballot, or is it both?

I having great difficultly deciding who to vote for - there are only 4 candidates in my constituency, two of whom I absolutely will not support. The other two represent parties each of which have policies I agree with, but each have major issues that put me off them. Whilst I am horrified by Jo Swindon’s stance on the GRA and women-with-penises, I feel that, for me, they are the least worst option - so I would like to vote LibDem but make a comment in the ballot paper - but if the candidate doesn’t see it, there is no point.

SDTG I think you'd be better served by voting however you feel moved to vote, and separately contacting the relevant candidate to tell them your views and that they shouldn't take your vote based on issues A-C (or whatever) as an endorsement of their stance on D. (Plus contacting other candidates to tell them why they lost your vote, if so inclined.)

Very good advice - thank you, @OnlyTheTitOfTheIceberg.

Why not include them all on the same email, then they can see each other's replies

I’m sure suffragettes would be in full support of any and all protests against this.

Agree. Re-reading 'March, Women March' and many parallels in terms of the propaganda here.

Oh, and the Pankhursts were 'privileged' does that mean that they should have hung up their purple, white and green sashes then?