Local elections how to spoil ballot?

[sessell]

I've always voted, even in local elections. However, as a GC lefty I am stuck. Our labour council are generally good, but the local candidate is an avowed, authoritarian TRA, though her promotional materials don't mention that, just standing up for women! I have seen her on FB laying into a GC woman and bragging about protesting outside a Woman's Place event . I really don't want to support them into a position where they could decimate single-sex spaces. Similarly greens, and lib-dems. I can't vote Tory for their cruelty. So I am left with spoiling my ballot. I'll write something like 'sex not gender identity in local politics.' But I wondered if any others are in the same position and if we could coordinate a slogan. It's a small protest, but candidates do read all spoiled ballots.

That's fine, and that's your choice but don't pretend you are doing it for the benefit of people who desperately rely on sensible, well funded local government services. Your choice to spoil your ballot does not benefit them in anyway.

My Labour candidate is an all round lovely guy @SushiGo. Except I happen to know he has harassed multiple women. Who should I vote for?

I don't know, I don't live where you live. As I said up thread my recommendation is to post on a local Facebook group, the candidates will quickly pop up once tagged and you can ask some decent questions.

Every single time this comes up. I dont care if mine never gets read, i only bother to do this so they know I actually bothered to turn up only to find women still dont matter. So they can fuck themselves for my actual x in a box.

This is how I feel.

I live in Scotland, the fuds that run things here with a very few notable exceptions don't deserve a lick o' my shite let alone my vote.

So it'll be "None" written across the ballot paper and a Woman Adult Human Female sticker...and hopefully a fit of the vapours again for any reality denying genderists who might happen upon my ballot at the count.

this is great - i now know who to vote for as our PCC. nice work

You're welcome sessell and ChiefInspectorParker Yes the PCC advice is helpful - I got the link from another poster on another thread but can't remember who it was now.

@SushiGo

I don't know, I don't live where you live. As I said up thread my recommendation is to post on a local Facebook group, the candidates will quickly pop up once tagged and you can ask some decent questions.

Yeah that doesn't really work with that sort of thing but thanks for your advice👍

[quote sessell]@murbblurb and everyone else who thinks a spoilt ballot disrespects the suffragettes. Here is a quote and hopefully a picture (if it uploads) from American suffragette Susan B Antony: “No self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex.” In my view it disrespects these pioneers if we blithely support parties that mostly blindly work to destroy the rights they fought for. Not voting at all is unthinkable. But in terms of voting, spoiling the ballot and making the reason clear is better than voting for a candidate who actively opposes sex-based rights.[/quote]
Thanks @sessell, I’ve been wondering how to spoil my ballot and I’m going to write that quote along with Labour losing women as I used to be a Labour Party member.

What a load of boll&$s on this thread. Spoiled ballots are counted as spoiled and then binned / destroyed. Honestly don't know why you f'g bother as NO ONE WILL NOTICE. Why live in a democracy where you have the privilege of a vote if you're going to waste your time on utterly meaningless 'gestures' ?

@SushiGo I do totally get what you mean and I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly until very recently but my Labour candidate is the clp women’s officer only because the previous women’s officer resigned when she wasn’t even allowed to raise a discussion about women’s single sex rights being impacted by self id. I can’t bring myself to vote conservative so I’d rather at least make a protest vote than not even turn up. I’m absolutely gutted to not be using my vote, it goes against everything I believe in but i don’t feel I have much choice.

@MiddleOfThePack

What a load of boll&$s on this thread. Spoiled ballots are counted as spoiled and then binned / destroyed. Honestly don't know why you f'g bother as NO ONE WILL NOTICE. Why live in a democracy where you have the privilege of a vote if you're going to waste your time on utterly meaningless 'gestures' ?

Totally agree. We're privileged compared to so many women who aren't even entitled to vote.

Spoilt ballot papers? Pointless, just don't bother voting. Nobody will even read or be remotely interested in what you write.

My daughter was fiercely political from a young age, my dp was happy to vote on her behalf when she was a younger teen.

Why not offer your vote to someone who isn't legally able to vote but would love to have the opportunity to do so?

Just spotted this thread: if you’re going to spoil your ballot with a picture (I believe that a cock and balls is traditional) make sure it isn’t entirely contained in one candidate’s box because otherwise it’ll be counted for them. There is some interesting case law on this.

There's a website on how to effectively spoil your ballot ... oh, what was it called ....

Got it!

www.votenone.org.uk/protest_votes_count.html

Personally I will always vote, even for the least worst candidate. But if you really feel you want to spoil your vote, the above advice seemed sound to me.

LIke @ArabellaScott I always vote, even if it is for the least worst candidate. If only to feel I can criticise from the position of having taken part. In the tiniest hope that the smaller the majority, the possibility they might take some interest in local issues and actually do something worthwhile.

Well I always used to vote Green if there wasn’t a decent Labour or Lib Dem to vote for so that the other parties would think the environment matters to people but they’re more interested in gender woo woo now so they’re out

Local councils have a statutory duty to assist women trying to flee domestic violence.

www.gov.uk/government/news/government-unveils-new-support-for-survivors-of-domestic-abuse

Despite that, I'm in a city that no longer has a single refuge or bed for women and children. There used to be one. Its just no longer open to women.

So dont get angry at whether or not I vote or spoil my ballot. I'm acting on local conditions.

Thanks for that link Arabella.
Quite simply I'm not voting for any party that wants to remove my rights - as far as I'm concerned, they're the ones who should be ashamed of themselves.

The only alternative I have left is to vote Conservative and I'm not quite ready for that yet although I don't criticise anyone who does.

Thanks Arabella. I too have always voted and I am horrified at the thought of not doing so, but I think this issue is so important and so fundamental. I have also been stripped of legitimate ways of addressing it through the ballot. I will write NONE and put the suffragette quote below it. I am terrified but determined

@murbblurb

No one reads spoilt papers. You are wasting your time and an actual vote.

That's not correct. The teller will briefly look at it , as they do with every paper, to determine if it can be counted.

If the result is close the presiding officer will be asked to look at the spoilt papers just in case a teller made the wrong call.

It's a small protest, but candidates do read all spoiled ballots

No they don't.

@ArabellaScott

There's a website on how to effectively spoil your ballot ... oh, what was it called ....

The advice on that site is basically nonsense.

Is it? Oh, dear. Apologies, if so.

Here is the Electoral Commission's advice on ballots:

www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media/3906

It's a small protest, but candidates do read all spoiled ballots

This isn't true. They will be scrutinised by tellers, to see if there is any way that the marks on the paper could be construed as a valid mark for one candidate.

But no-one is reading or paying attention to anything else.

If it makes you happy, then do it. But don't be under a misapprehension that what you write will be read, recorded or remembered. They care only about whether the marks on the paper should be counted as a vote.

Thus myth was doing the Internet rounds at the time of previous elections. I really thought it had been fully explained as rubbish then, but it looks like it's one that has inexplicably developed some sticking power

I’ve been a candidate on a number of occasions and have never been asked to look at a spoilt ballot paper. Whatever political view you want to express, spoiling your paper only shows me that you don’t feel strongly enough to move your vote to my opponent.

If you want to send a message to a specific candidate, vote for their opponent and write to them directly to tell them why.

I do sympathise with people saying that they can’t vote for anyone. Maybe look closely at the individual candidates - what they do on your local council will be more important to your community than their national party’s policy on trans rights.

I’ve been a candidate on a number of occasions and have never been asked to look at a spoilt ballot paper.

Who was running your counts? Were you there throughout the night? Maybe your agent did it.