Have you/will you spoil your ballot?

[CervixSampler]

Today I have for the first time ever. I know I'll be flamed by some but the available choices don't know what a woman is. I had fun with my pencil but it sits uneasy with me.

It's actually really bad that there isn't a box to tick to say 'none of the above' and perhaps a box to write why. I object to all of the parties for various and I want to be able to get this across in a legitimate way.

Elections are supposed to be our chance to have our say- that needs to include being able to say why none of them are good enough.

People spoiling your ballots, were there no other issues you felt it was worth taking a stand on?

Sex not gender IS the issue I take a stand on.

I was going to start a thread about exactly this earlier.

I spoiled my ballot for the first time ever today.

I thought about spoiling my ballot but at the end of the day someone is going to win with or without my vote so I may as well try to vote for someone who represents some of my beliefs

What would happen (and I know there are more chances of me being voted King of the universe) if all ballots were spoiled?

I had three votes.

For the council I wrote, "I emailed all of you to ask if you believe a woman is an adult human female and none of you responded"

@llm24

I don’t understand why you would waste your vote Things will never change if you don’t vote Don’t vote - don’t complain

My 16 year old can vote in Scotland for
the first time and she has taken the time to read and understand party manifestos - it puts some adults to shame

That's great. Was there an outstanding candidate that she actually agreed with or did she vote 'least worst' or ?

I’ve done quite a few vote counts. We just have a laugh at your expense, the spoiled ballots are shown to local party leaders but that’s it. What are you really achieving? No big change will come of it really. It’s only knobhead party leader tony who will read it and just ignore it

@StrawberryLipstickStateOfMind

It's actually really bad that there isn't a box to tick to say 'none of the above' and perhaps a box to write why. I object to all of the parties for various and I want to be able to get this across in a legitimate way.

Elections are supposed to be our chance to have our say- that needs to include being able to say why none of them are good enough.

There definitely should be!

Spoiled. I wrote woman: adult human female next to candidates’ names. I’m so fucking furious today.

I’ve spoiled my vote three times already but this time will vote for count Binface, I think. I take my daughters and we write “sex matters” on the voting slip. I would never not vote as it’s such an important thing and I am a role model for my children but this is also exercising my democratic rights. If enough of us do it they will start noticing, but to be honest the reason I do it is just that I have no other choice. No party gets my vote unless they know what a woman is. I’m not even convinced by the Tories on this one.

@SaorsaAlba

I spoiled my constituency vote and voted on the list.

I didn't spoil it for recognition or a pat on the back.

I spoiled it because it is my right to vote and not one of the candidates represents my views. This is the first time in my life I have spoiled a vote.

Ditto. I did the same.

My research about the matter was that election agents for each candidate look at spoiled votes to try and claim the votes for their candidate.

I know a couple of candidates. They are spreading the word (in Scotland) that spoiled votes should be examined.

@Ivy48

I’ve done quite a few vote counts. We just have a laugh at your expense, the spoiled ballots are shown to local party leaders but that’s it. What are you really achieving? No big change will come of it really. It’s only knobhead party leader tony who will read it and just ignore it

I mean, you've literally just said what's being achieved if spoilt ballots are shown to local party leaders.

If local party leaders see enough spoilt ballots effectively saying "biological sex matters" then maybe it'll cause them to think twice before giving away women's rights without our say so.

Why did you spoil your ballot? Surely not voting at all would have been sufficient. It won’t be seen by anyone except the person counting the votes. You must have time to waste.

@user1498572889

Why did you spoil your ballot? Surely not voting at all would have been sufficient. It won’t be seen by anyone except the person counting the votes. You must have time to waste.

Clearly you do, to hang around berating women for feministing wrong 😂

I'm in Scotland, spoiled by constituency vote with the woman symbol and wrote: adult female human.

I don't feel good about it and have always voted but this time around I had to vote on this issue alone. I did write to each of the candidates but their responses confirmed I couldn't vote for them.

@llm24

I don’t understand why you would waste your vote Things will never change if you don’t vote Don’t vote - don’t complain

My 16 year old can vote in Scotland for
the first time and she has taken the time to read and understand party manifestos - it puts some adults to shame

A spoiled vote is a vote.

I too researched my options. I'm very interested in politics. I even contacted the candidates and when that failed I got my DH to contact the candidates. Guess what? He got a reply I didn't.

If there is no one on the list who meets my needs do you really expect me to vote for someone? I normally vote with the most vulnerable person/people/group I know at the forefront of my mind.

This time I voted with women in mind and that meant spoiling my vote.

I was able to vote in the list through. There are other constituencies where I'd have been able to vote for a candidate.

Does anyone know if TUSC are twaw? I can't find anything on their website.

I voted for Labour PCC. I wrote to all of them and asked them how they would protect females against biologically born males. Labour PCC came back and said that although he had sympathy for the trans community this should not be at the expense of other groups. My local council Labour had a good friend of mine running and she's pretty GC so at a local level I think I'm covered. I spoilt my county ballot and hash tagged #sexnotgender across the paper. I've never spoilt before.

I spoiled my ballot for the second election in a row. I appreciate no one will ponder my comment "women don't have cocks" but one person will see it and you never know, might make them curious.

Spoilt ballots are counted and released as part of the total, so my unhappiness with the candidates and parties is registered there.

I am in London so couldn't vote Tory and no other party seems to be able to say that a woman is a sex class.

I voted for the London Mayor and spoilt the 2 for the London Assembly.
Like others, the first time I have ever spoiled my ballot.

SisterWendyBuckett you sum it up perfectly.

There's been nothing from anyone other than the libdems here. Nothing at all. Not even for the metro mayor. He never responds to queries and nor does our Tory MP. The LibDem councillors had a misogynistic spat with the Greens a few years back and the Green candidate thinks twaw and didn't respond after I politely tried to get more information on her politics around women. Labour have been invisible, tories invisible and no independent candidate this time. There was only one leaflet from the libdems too and I think that was their look we are so wonderful for the community leaflet we get every so often. No one has shown any interest in getting my vote and I always voted up until today. I couldn't vote for anyone in good faith so I'm not wasting my vote by voting against my beliefs.

I voted for a conservative candidate for the first time ever today, Shaun Bailey for London Mayor - in part because of Sadiq’s “TWAW” tweet, but also because Bailey’s manifesto was so much more readable - bullet pointed lists etc. Did anyone read Sadiq’s? There was a chapter on his 10 point plan, full paragraphs of copy and nowhere was there a bulleted list of the 10 key points! It was so hard to navigate - I came away not really knowing what he was planning - unless I sat down with it for hours! A definite comms failure there.

Bailey’s was much clearer and had a lot of good initiatives (I’m sure Sadiq’s did too but you would have had to print his out and sit down with a glass of wine and a highlighter to spot them).

I still voted Labour as MP though as couldn’t bring myself to fully vote conservative. I really like Sadiq in general, but that tweet wasn’t necessary.

@StrawberryLipstickStateOfMind

It's actually really bad that there isn't a box to tick to say 'none of the above' and perhaps a box to write why. I object to all of the parties for various and I want to be able to get this across in a legitimate way.

Elections are supposed to be our chance to have our say- that needs to include being able to say why none of them are good enough.

I was thinking this as I walked to the polling station! all that money to gather people’s opinions and no box to ask a free form question! Even “if you didn’t vote today why, or if you changed your vote why” something like that.

@llm24

I don’t understand why you would waste your vote Things will never change if you don’t vote Don’t vote - don’t complain

My 16 year old can vote in Scotland for
the first time and she has taken the time to read and understand party manifestos - it puts some adults to shame

I'm glad they were able to find someone to vote for.

It's not that we are uninformed, many who have spoiled their ballot today have done so after reading manifestos, writing to candidates and engaging with the issues. The shame lies with the parties not those spoiling the vote.

I hope your teen understands why people feel so strongly that they needed to do this and becomes a champion for women's sex based rights.

I emailed my mp to tel her why I can't vote for any Labour candidates today. It felt like the best I can do. I can't bring myself to vote for anyone until they start pprotecting the sex based rights of women and girls. I hate it but there we are.

Will be writing to her tomorrow about the EHRC case.

@thinkningaboutit

my daughter is very educated about woman’s rights and a keen modern studies pupil and she is hoping to study this at University
you never know we
might she her one day representing one of political parties