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.

Possibly my agent was shown them. Either way, I have no idea what was written on them, so it wouldn’t have been an effective way of sending a message.

I did listen to what people said on the doorstep and read the emails people sent me though. Especially if they said they were going to vote for my opponent because of my position on a specific issue.

I agree with Treats. It's far more impactful to vote for an opponent then email both to say why.

However I am amazed that if eg, there's no dv refuge shelter in your area you haven't been prepared to individually contact all the candidates, ask which one will reinstate it, then campaign locally to vote for X person to get it back!!

That would be a far more effective way to ensure the refuge comes back then sulkily writing on the ballot paper something that only other GC people will understand as a reference to refuges.

Do you want real action that will help people in your area or do you want to make a point that probably won't be understood and might not even be read?

I wish more people would just get involved in local politics and at least try to make a difference than rant on about spoiling their vote .

@Treats

Possibly my agent was shown them. Either way, I have no idea what was written on them, so it wouldn’t have been an effective way of sending a message.

I did listen to what people said on the doorstep and read the emails people sent me though. Especially if they said they were going to vote for my opponent because of my position on a specific issue.

If you read around this in fwr, emails are being ignored and the issue itself is not sufficiently mainstream (as it only affects women and apparently we dont matter) so if and when you catch a councillor to talk about this as I did, they have no idea what you mean. The occasional one does and the party line being twaw and be kind means you are the bigot for bringing this up.

And at least one candidate last time admitted on Facebook that she had been shown the spoiled ballots and seen how many gc people there are in that district. And a lot of cock and balls she said.

Life long Labour voter here, but this year for the London Mayor I'll be voting for SDP, Steve Kelleher (or something like that) doubt he'll get in, but I could t bare to not vote and they are the only ones that talk about women's rights and transgender rights, so it seems they get it...

sdp.org.uk/ link to them, think they were Brexit people, but frankly I'm beyond caring about that anymore!

This is really about how emails are phrased. As you say it's not a mainstream issue, so a long detailed and generic email is going to be difficult to reply to. It needs to be short and to the point about very specific local issues. Then if the candidate doesn't know what the situation is locally they can find out.

X was a really important service in our town, I'm disappointed that Y has happened because Z. If elected will you reverse this decision?

I have stood for election at district and county council level, and I've been shown the spoilt ballots. I remember a little bunch one year that had written 'ukip' as that's what they wanted but they weren't standing.

@Ragwort I agree about voting rather than spoiling votes - just wanted to ensure that the OP didn’t accidentally cast a vote for someone they didn’t support. If there was more interest in local politics we’d all get better local politicians.

@Ragwort

I wish more people would just get involved in local politics and at least try to make a difference than rant on about spoiling their vote .

TBH, the system is not exactly set up to be women friendly, for various reasons. I steer well clear of my local politics. Full of angry men, plus meetings are impossible to attend. It's crap.

I have a choice of the abusive Labour person, green, libdem or Tory. I can't vote for any of them.

Local politics really isn't (or shouldn't be) about parties. By flying under a particular banner they get their leaflets paid for. It doesn't mean they agree with everything the party says. This is where talking to the candidates is so important.

If you want an opposing view in your local area to scrutinise decisions that are being made it might be useful to vote for whoever is likely to get a minority seat. Eg, at the moment most of the Councillors on that Council are Labour, consider voting lib dem. If they get a seat they're going to be looking carefully at what their labour colleagues are doing and objecting if they think it's wrong.

Arabella a (female) friend of mine is standing in our local election, I admire her for at least trying to make a difference, we actually have plenty of women on our local council. I hope she gets in (will update later).

at the moment most of the Councillors on that Council are Labour, consider voting lib dem. If they get a seat they're going to be looking carefully at what their labour colleagues are doing and objecting if they think it's wrong

In normal times I would agree, but as all apart from conservative are twaw what's the bloody point. Also in normal times I would vote for the least worst (which is now I look at it a stupid way to vote)
Right now in current year I believe strongly that women matter far more than they are being represented. So I will withhold my vote until someone cares that women are losing spaces reserved solely for them.

And inevitably one day some numpty will be interviewed and say, well we never knew women felt so strongly about this, then I and others can prove that lie in many many ways, not least our ballot papers.

don't deserve a lick o' my shite let alone my vote.

Right, this is what I'm going to write on my ballot paper

Again, though we're back to you feeling your views on this matter are more important than whether or not services that vulnerable women area in your area rely on exist in four years time.

Think about how quickly children's centres were lost. Could we have saved them if more than 33% of the local population had turned out to place valid votes? Yes.

This is a terrible waste of a vote, did you not study the suffragettes?! Women died so that we could vote. I’m really, really disappointed to read this thread.

IF the candidates actually read the ruined ballot paper they won’t pay much attention to it, they will have a lot going on, it won’t make an impact. Don’t waste the vote.

@SushiGo

Again, though we're back to you feeling your views on this matter are more important than whether or not services that vulnerable women area in your area rely on exist in four years time.

Think about how quickly children's centres were lost. Could we have saved them if more than 33% of the local population had turned out to place valid votes? Yes.

So this isnt about me spoiling my vote then, it's about the 66% that didnt bother, go harass them then

@Thecatsawinner

This is a terrible waste of a vote, did you not study the suffragettes?! Women died so that we could vote. I’m really, really disappointed to read this thread.

IF the candidates actually read the ruined ballot paper they won’t pay much attention to it, they will have a lot going on, it won’t make an impact. Don’t waste the vote.

Reading is obviously not your strong point. In this thread alone at least 2 of us have stated the spoiled ballots are scrutinised for a potential vote for a candidate.

SushiGo thing is we live in a democracy and you feel we should do one thing, but we actually all have the right to do another. I have voted very tactically and spoiled to vote I knew didn’t matter, voted for a party that won’t win to make a point, and voted tactically for someone I don’t want to vote for to keep someone I like less out. But we always have the right not to vote for any of them if we choose. It’s a matter of personal values and these may be even more important than other things. There are some hills that I will die on and I won’t vote for someone who breaches my principles.

There are some hills that I will die on and I won’t vote for someone who breaches my principles.

This. I will spoil my ballot as I will not vote Tory (she didn't even reply to my contacts), but I will not vote for a man who says "I would accept a man posing as a woman as a woman".

#labourlosingwomen and adult human female will be my words today.

I spoiled my vote today for the first time. I’ve voted in every election since my 18th birthday so this was not a decision I took lightly. I cannot vote for any party that will strip me of my sex-based rights. You may have a vote now, but what’s to say they’ll stop at single-sex spaces and redefining our words? Thin end of the wedge. Sushigo You assume we aren’t also lobbying our local politicians, but most aren’t listening or privately agree with us on the doorstep but do the opposite in public. I did mark up my ballot with my reasons, but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t get read. It shows I turned up, that my vote was there for the taking but I could not vote for any of the candidates on the ballot. I exercised my right to vote, which is what the suffragettes fought for.

A tip for later voters - there was no privacy in my polling station due to COVID arrangements and a strict one in, one out rule. Everyone could hear me scribbling and I held up the queue. Stickers would be quicker and quieter if you have a lot you wanted to say.

Just wanted to say, well done for still exercising your hard won rights.

Women always need to respect the sacrifice of our suffragette sisters. We must always turn up and put a mark on that ballot paper. Doesn't matter if that mark is a vote or a spoil. Just make that mark.

I have my 'votes for women' face mask all ready for today. Will be taking my kids with me later so they learn how simple, easy and important voting is.

@murbblurb

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

Not true. They do get read. All the spoilt papers get put in a pile and have to be agreed by all parties that the paper is spoilt. I've seen everything from "don't know enough about the candidates" to "cunt" on a ballot paper (I've been involved in the count). Messages can be helpful.

Really all this shows is we need PR.

The old style broad church parties simply were not built for the societies we have now.

Would I like Labour to go full on in defending women's rights? Yes. Do I understand why they can't/won't? Yes. They would lose an enormous amount of activists, be embroiled in internal disputes and the only winners would be the Tories. Alba in Scotland thought they were going to benefit from the issue. How are they doing? Polling at about 2%.

I have no strong feelings about spoilt ballots - if people honestly feel they can't vote for any candidate then there probably isn't a better alternative. But please remember that only moving towards a political system where people's views actually count for something will achieve what we want.