Have you spoilt your ballot? A thread to indicate numbers

[Chrysanthemum5]

Hi all
I've just posted my vote. I live in a constituency where the incumbent has a big majority, and will win again. He is the only one people have posters up for, the only one really sending out leaflets etc everyone else has given up. He is Labour, and full on TWAW, insists there is no conflict with women's rights and refused to talk to me about this issue. The other candidates are the usual mix of Tory and Greens with a sprinkling of independents and Reform.

Politically speaking I am Labour, and always have been. But their attitude towards the rights of women is shocking. To be fair I grew up in a family heavily involved in unions so I always knew the unions were misogynistic but Labour seemed ok. Not any more.

If you have spoilt your ballot it would be interesting to know so that we can see (and maybe politicians can see) what women are thinking

How will someone who spoils their ballot be ignored more than someone who, for example, votes for a party that comes fourth in their constituency with a few hundred votes?

Because a spoiled ballot gives no indication of views whatsoever. Voting for a party that came fourth does.

I know this isn’t the point of the thread 😬 but I want to say I’m envious of how simple it is to arrange a postal vote in GB.

Over here in N Ireland we have to have either medical evidence or a statement from an employer to say why we can’t attend a polling station in person AND we also have to get our postal vote application form witnessed and co-signed by someone from a small list of professions.

On election day we have to bring photo ID + polling card to the polling station too.

So, at any rate, I have until the 4th (when I go to the polling station) to make up my mind who I can bring myself to vote for or to decide if I’ll spoil my vote.

It’s been very interesting reading everyone’s comments.

The Greens are even worse than Labour. They have suspended lifelong environmental campaigners who dared to deny that TWAW. The Earth deserves so much better.

No it doesn’t. It’s a secret ballot. All anyone knows is whether you turned up or not. Parties know pensioners turn up, so they bother trying to appeal to them. If you spoil your vote, you’re marked on the register as having turned up

Yes but what I mean is it’s known that enough people voted for the fourth party to make them fourth, iyswim?

I think the opposite argument could also be made. A spoiled ballot indicates that the voter felt no confidence in any of the candidates. Whereas a vote for the Greens, or Reform or whatever your protest choice, is an endorsement their policies and might give a false indication of your views.

The only useful purpose a vote for a minor party serves is a tactical one to try to keep a particular party from gaining a marginal seat.

I really don’t think spoiling your ballot paper achieves anything at all. Whoever gets in will be in power another five years so I hardly think that in five years time your spoilt ballots will be changing anything. The important thing is to remove the tories before the nhs, housing, education etc are further destroyed. These issues affect us even more than men in frocks. The fight for women's rights can continue post election.
The tories have been in power 14 years and only now do a few speak up about the trans issue. Hardly gives me confidence that they alone can support women.
I read a post a few days ago which said something like spoiling your vote/ refusing to vote is like shitting the bed in protest and then realising you still have to sleep in it.

I suppose being accused of shitting in the bed is a new one for the bingo card.

Why should I vote for Labour who can tell me all about the rights they intend to bring in for one group of people, but not reassure me about my own and that of fifty percent of the population?

Labour have been shitting in MY bed for some time now and I've had enough of waiting for them to clear their shit up. Unless they get their act together pretty damn quick they can fuck off.

No, it really is not only now.

Only now, in the last two days though have some specific Kier Starmer lies been revealed.

"spoiling your vote/ refusing to vote is like shitting the bed in protest and then realising you still have to sleep in it"

The thing with analogies is they are just like owls wearing glasses and holding fountain pens... They conjure up persuasive imagery that something wise and intelligent has been said when really they're just bird brained nonsense

I'm going to spoil, first time ever. I'm 61.

If a party cannot be upfront and HONEST about what they KNOW a woman to be, for Christ's sake, I will not give them my permission to govern.

Tory left it Far Too Late.

I will write on my spoilt ballot paper, as I gather they do get read.

I never got the concept of a spoiled ballot!

I've already sent mine in (spoiled) but if a POW or joke candidate like Binface was standing in my constituency of course I'd vote for them. But I didn't have that option.

👍

It's always bizarre to see the 'vote for Labour, you thick fuckers' argument. Has it ever proven a winning strategy?

The argument seems to be that if you don't use your vote, you are betraying women who fought for your right to have a vote. The argument against spoiled votes seem to be that it's a waste and somehow undemocratic. But obviously anyone who votes for anything besides the Labour Party (even if they have proven themselves to be shit beyond reckoning) is a society hating idiot.

So, basically - vote Labour. Even if they're shit, even if you don't agree with them. Because that's what other people have decided that you must do.

That's the democratic way, apparently.

And as for all the 'vote them in, we'll deal with women's rights afterwards', they may well do what the SNP did and say, 'well, you voted for us. You knew our views and policies. So you voted for this. You can't complain now'.

(And before I get the wild arm waving of 'you're going to vote Tory!!!!l, I'm not. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I may spoil my vote. I may even be forced to strategically vote for Labour just to make sure that the SNP/Greens/Lib Dems can't get in. But the whinging? God, it makes me want to dance up and down on my ballot paper out of sheer spite).

I'm going to watch Starmer in tonight's debate. Last chance saloon before I fill in my postal vote.

I was going to spoil my ballot, or vote for 'Rejoin EU' but in a fit of pique after Starmer's latest bullshit, I voted Tory. I live in an area that's been red forever and an MP who seems like a permanent part of the landscape so it won't make any difference, but it seemed in the moment like the best way to say 'fuck you Labour'. No one really knows what our MP thinks or what he actually does, but that's one vote against his complacency.

I'll add my two cents to the spoiled vote discussion, having worked in electoral services for a long time.

In my experience the observers are interested in spoiled votes and anything out of the ordinary. The count is a boring business a lot of the time, watching piles of votes stack up and hoping your pile is going to be the largest, and they all know it can sometimes come down to one vote (or even drawing lots) to decide an outcome. It must also be galling to miss out by just a few votes, and recounts are a given where it's even remotely close.

So when there's a ballot paper that's unclear, it provides a bit of excitement for everyone. As a count supervisor I always held up spoilt votes for any observers to see clearly. These people may be the candidate themselves, election agent etc and they usually have someone making notes. They will quite often have something to say - eye rolls about confused voters making mistakes, or indignation when someone writes something sweary or rude. They often want to know why they didn't get that precious vote (probably not in the case of my immovable MP as above, but hey ho). I get the impression the campaigners within their parties will all share notes and talk about anything unusual they saw. It also kind of kept the count supervisors going having a bit of a discreet laugh about the rude ones we saw.

And as for all the 'vote them in, we'll deal with women's rights afterwards',

I always feel that this attitude has more than a touch of the "First the glorious revolution and then we'll see about giving you women some rights", about it.

And as you say, It's pointless giving a vote to a party if you don't agree with their manifesto cos they're going to claim that all the votes were because of the things contained in the manifesto.

Kathleen Stock and Julie Bindel have both stated publicly that they'll vote Labour but they're not happy about the party's stance on women's rights. Labour will happily take the votes and not give a shit about any unhappiness.

Wes Streeting's having a right old froth post debate there.
He knows Starmer wasn't winning hearts and minds.

I watched tonight's debate and I have finally decided how to vote. I have had the vote for the last 5 elections and have found reasons to vote Labour (3) LibDem (1) and Tory (1). I have been flirting with a spoiled or frivolous vote this time but I really want my vote to count for something. My constituency has had a massive Tory majority since forever but is now forecast to be a Labour marginal. The only way that I can influence the Labour Party on the subject of women's rights is to vote Tory. The only way that they can be persuaded to put women's needs first is to lose seats that they thought that they had in the bag.

I’ve spoiled my postal ballot. Used the Susan B Anthony quote. I’m in a very safe Tory seat and Labour (my natural choice) only ever come a very distant third so it doesn’t feel like any more of a wasted vote than an unspoiled one.

I’m sure this will upset some on this thread but I have several friends who are counters. They have all said that spoiled votes (that aren’t just pictures of willies 😁) do get read, by advisers if not by candidates themselves. Especially if the vote is close or things are looking shaky for the party. Maybe we just do things differently in the south west?

Maybe we just do things differently in the south west

Or maybe the vote scolders are lying about what happens!

Bearing in mind each spoiled vote is categorised into type of spoil, somebody somewhere is looking at them. 🤷‍♀️

It's fairly easy to spot those scolders who haven't really been to a count versus those who have.

Safe seat here. I think I'll be following your lead and using the same quote @MilitantFawcett