Who are you voting for

[fluckityfluckfluck]

Genuinely can't see how I can vote at all....

Tough one.

There are several definitely not (lab/lib/green) and one or two mights. (Independent)

There is no one I can vote for so I'm going to spoil my ballot and write in small letters "deeds not words" - sex is immutable and that until Labour start listening to women they will no longer have my vote. Or I might just draw a cock and calls and say that no women have these. All spoiled ballots have to be looked at by a small team usually including candidates so it may get the message across. I think many women will just not vote, but spoiling the ballot with a message shows that they genuinely lost your vote - it's not just apathy.

I've voted lib Dem in the council elections because of their stance on local issues (against building a massive road for no reason apart from lining the current council leaders' mate's pockets)

Local elections (have 2 councillors) Labour and Lib Dem. Mayoral Labour.

I need to vote best of a pretty poor bunch, with a little bit of tactical. I am voting on important local issues.

I'm in a woke, safe Labour seat. There's no SDP candidate. I can't bring myself to vote Tory. The Greens care more about gender identity than the environment, otherwise I would have voted for them.
So my 'choice' is to either not vote, or spoil my ballot.

I don't know. Where I live is a Labour stronghold with a Labour mayor. Not lib dem, for certain.

Thankfully we have independents for the local elections

I don’t have a vote this time around but agree that SDP know what a woman is so if they were on the ballot I’d certainly be taking a close look at them

Please do vote - even if you just spoil your ballot, as spoilt ballots are counted. All women should vote - the fact that we don't is used against us 😞

I would suggest taking a step back - women's rights are a massive issue but so are the economy, the environment, the NHS, education in its forms and social issues - perhaps you could vote on those issues instead?

I will be voting Labour - they're not great on this issue but to me, they're better than the others on most other issues.

My (councillor) independents are absolute shite, I'm not going to vote for someone who hasn't been seen or heard from in 4 years, until a shiny leaflet drops through my door at election time.

Local elections are always a bit more difficult as I want the best person on a local level, I'm not necessarily looking at this on a national level.

I have voted independents in the past, but locally the vast majority do little other than whinge and have little oversight.

I'd prefer to vote independent for the mayor, but we are where we are.

All women should vote - the fact that we don't is used against us

The other issues are important, which is why IMO downright abusive of Labour to hold us hostage over them.

Spoiling your ballot is absolutely pathetic and you cannot moan about the state of things unless you vote. Bizarre thinking to spoil a ballot. Vote tactically to get the tories out.

But what if none of the options is acceptable to you?

If all candidates were homophobic or racist for example, would you discount that and vote for the least bad?

Serious question, not trying to be goady.

Spoiling your ballot is absolutely pathetic and you cannot moan about the state of things unless you vote. Bizarre thinking to spoil a ballot. Vote tactically to get the tories out.

How is the suggsstion to vote tactically any help here? Getting the Tories out means getting someone else in. I hate the Tories and would love to have a sensible centre-left party to vote for, which doesn't have policies to which I am strongly ideologically opposed. Unfortunately there isn't one. Lib Dems always win where I am anyway.

I'm in a safe Labour Council area where the libdems have 2 seats. My vote won't "get the Tories out". I want Labour to listen to women. Spoiling my ballot won't make one iota of difference to the result, but if someone has to read the message, maybe it might start sinking in that women's rights will be the undoing of Labour's chances of winning the next election, like antisemitism was for Corbyn. I want Labour to win the next general election, but they risk not doing so if they don't start listening to women. This issue is an open goal for the Tories which they will exploit mercilessly in the run up to the next GE. Labour had a tin ear about antisemitism and seemingly now has a tin ear about women's rights. So no, it's not "pathetic" to spoil my ballot.

Yes to be honest under these circumstances I probably wouldn’t vote at all, but maybe I’d be out protesting or trying to do something to be pro active in a different way. I know not everyone has this option but you’d have to try an do what you could.

I think for me I am willing to forego the women’s rights issues to try and improve everything else the tories are destroying. I might be shooting myself in the foot as a woman but there are more of my basic level needs not being met and I’d be willing to see labour as the lesser of 2 evils.

I'm voting independent and Tory. My local labour candidates do fuck all around here - I've known one of them for years and she has zero interest in the town, she's only interested in her own political career. I know both the independent and Tory candidates and they both do massive amounts of work for the community.

I don't care about pasty politics when it comes to local elections.

Pasty politics

Yeah I fully agree with where you’re coming from, I’m in a labour strong hold where I live too. But maybe there are other ways of trying to get the message across other than wasting the one way we have to change things perhaps? Everything’s such a shit show at the minute I feel at a loss completely haha!

To vote is important, but if the only candidates that are available are fundamentaly opposed to something you very much think is important - then how can you, in good conscience, vote for them? You can't!

It is not pathetic to have integrity and to take the vote seriously. And spoiling is sometimes the only option.

I live in a Labour city with a Labour mayor. The Labour party in my city is a total basket case: corrupt; incompetent, full of cronyism and even Labour voters in the city want to see the back of them.

I sat in the council chamber a few years ago when the Labour mayor screamed abuse at us ( a group of women who had been invited to speak about womne's issues in the event of them wanting to pass a bill that would make all toilets 'gender neutral' in council owned buildings going forward) and the assembled counciillors stood up to applaud that abuse.

My local Labour MP refuses to meet with her constituents on the issue of women's righst and protections - we've been told we are "wasting our time".

I'll probably end up voting Lib Dem ( in local electcions only) in order to ensure that Labour is weakened in the city ( they have the best chance locally) - even though I'd never dream of voting Lib -Dem in a general election.

The last few elections I've been spoiling my ballot - with specially made stickers.

I'm not sure I can vote, I can't find my driving licence photo id (which was definitely in my bag) and it's too late to apply for a Council I'd. I'll keep looking, it has to be somewhere. I'm not too fussed though, there's no one I want to vote for, I would probably spoil my ballot. If I find it and the commies have fielded a candidate, or the sdp, I might vote for them.

My constituency is Tory and one of the most likely to swing to Labour.

Nope. Spoiling your ballot is not ‘pathetic’.

I was a life long Labour voter but will not vote for a party that supports self ID and gives more credence to TRAs and TROONs than women and girls.

They don’t represent me so they won’t get my vote.

My (councillor) independents are absolute shite, I'm not going to vote for someone who hasn't been seen or heard from in 4 years, until a shiny leaflet drops through my door at election time.

We have the same problem, but with Labour. They just take our votes for granted despite the absolute shit storm that is liverpool council

Conservative.