Coordinating spoilt ballots

[Binglebong]

I know there is a thread about have you spoilt your ballot but this is slightly different.

I'm trying to hold my nose and vote for someone but there is not a single potential MP in my constituency who does not disgust me. I don't want to vote Reform or someone as a protest as it might be seen that they have more support than they do. So the liklihood is that I will spoil my vote.

I know spoilt votes only really get looked at if there is a huge number or if the vote is close. But just in case I was wondering if it is worth having the same thing written on all of them to show that it is a massive issue that is losing them votes. What would you suggest (if you think it is a good idea).
Respect my sex if you want my X is a good one but is it the best?

BRILLIANT post, agree with every single word you've said!

When you're given permission by a man.

Fill your boots, then, Arabella! 😃

I've actually checked the predicted vote for my constituency, it's 52% Labour. My MP is full on TWAW so there's no way in hell I'm voting for her. So I may as well stay at home. But I'm NOT going to do that as I actually care about this issue and I want to make a statement. Even if it's just for me.

Sorry I think I might be repeating myself but it would be really good if there was a web site where people who spoilt their ballot or who didn't vote could say which they did and why.

I tried looking at some of the petition type web sites but dont see how you could use them to do that.

Unless it was a petition about changing the voting system or something.

Problem is, unless it was widely used it wouldn't really reflect the situation.

There is a web site called No Vote or None but looks a bit old and not recently updated.

So although those of us on FWR may share similar reasons for frustration, I think there is quite a long history of people not voting, and not just because they are lazy!

Yes there is a history of people not voting as a protest. There is no distinction between accidentally or purposely spoilt ballots, but a spike should show up. As I mentioned, I think there will be a spike for a variety of reasons. There is a movement to spoil ballots to protest about Gaza.

The trouble is that because there are multiple reasons, nobody will know how many ballots were spoilt for each particular protest.

A website to log this would help but if it was a single website it would need a lot of support from a spectrum of people with very different political views.

When you have actually engaged with the Democratic process rather than making a vain, but ultimately meaningless, gesture.

Anecdote. My favourite type of data

How on earth is spoiling your vote a vain, meaningless gesture? I wish so much to be able to back someone, to put an X n the box next to a candidates name, someone who I believe will at least share some of my values and speak for me. There is NO ONE. So, do I just stay home, not vote and look disinterested? Or, do I get down to the polling booth and have my say?

I'm entitled to at least say that there is no one worthy of my vote. I am honestly disgusted that we are in this situation. The more people speak up this way then maybe someone will take note. I know my ballot paper will be tossed aside and barely looked at but what is the alternative?

Flow chart for Good People in the upcoming General Election:

1. Are you a partially-sentient support biped?
2. If so, think of literally everybody and everything else as being more important than you.
3. Then, remember that your duty is to placidly consider only the selection of options presented on your ballot paper.
4. If you have done steps 1-3 correctly, you will understand that consequently, your vote is owed to The Righteous Parties on the list.
5. If you cast your vote for a Wrong Party because it represents something important to you, you have done a Bad Thing (see steps 1-2).
6. If you spoil your ballot because you find that no candidates represent your views, you have done a Bad Thing (see step 3) and you have further failed to even think of the exhausting burden you are placing upon the ballot counters - did you not get the message that you need to think of literally everybody above yourself (see step 2)?
7. Worst of all, you will have exhibited a range of sentience which is beyond the permitted partial level (step 1) - these overstepping thoughts and behaviours have labels such as Vain, Selfish and Ignorant.

Haha very good.

Brilliant, @Kucinghitam! 👏

Its Tuesday and our postal ballots still haven't arrived.
I had hoped there would be an independent I could vote for, but he has sent out an election leaflet saying 'support Gaza'.

You can do an emergency proxy vote, for anyone whose ballot hasn't arrived in time.

Ballots have arrived but there's no one to vote for! I guess we'll have to hand them in at the polling station.

@Kucinghitam I love your wry sense of humour 👏 but I wish it wasn’t so close to the truth 😞

There's no point all writing the same thing, no one is going to read it.

Nothing screams one issue vote like writing "woman = adult human female" on the ballot anyway. Beats me how this can really be the only thing people care about.

A website to log this would help but if it was a single website it would need a lot of support from a spectrum of people with very different political views.

Yes, and of course and now much to late in the process to start attempting anything.

But do find it strange because even MSM have been reporting how many people are expressing disinterest, and recognised that however angry they might be with the Tories, the idea that Labour is what they will get is disillusioning.

Do you think if I was somehow able to contact JKR and she retweeted it, that enough people would be interested to say they would post on a web site?

Every vote counts - even if it’s used to thwart a bad candidate/party rather than an enthusiastic vote in support of somebody.

No they dont.

They only count in marginals.

Or a referenduam.

As much as the hopelessness of our current political parties it is the FPTP that makes so many people uninterested in voting.

It would risk the secrecy of the vote if they were.

I have to say i wonder how secret they are, or might be in the future.

From memory as I remember from going to vote, they record my name against a sheet that has all the numbers of the ballot papers.

So at any time, should "the state" or whoever want to look at my record of voting they could do so.

(Assuming the info recorded on the registration sheet is computerised. Otherwise someone could spend their whole life going through a room of filing cabinets and still not track down my history.)

I care about many things. But I WILL NOT vote for a party that is promising to throw women under a bus, no matter what their other policies are.

Its good to see that even the Guardian has been made to realise that women are no longer willing to be the good little girl who does her duty.

" ... Scores also said they were concerned about rising extremism and political polarisation, misogyny, violence against women and girls, antisemitism and Islamophobia.

About a fifth of respondents said they had either decided to spoil their ballot paper or were considering doing so,

“However, the final straw for me is the issue of women’s rights”

Sharon was one of hundreds of women who shared that sex-based rights for women and girls was a main political concern of theirs this election.

Women from across the country, dozens of them economically disadvantaged or with disabilities, said they would abandon Labour, the Lib Dems or the Greens over this issue and vote either Conservative, Reform or spoil their ballot – particularly women from marginal areas Labour is hoping to gain, such as Lincoln, Darlington, Derbyshire, Warrington North and Truro and Falmouth. ... "

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5110371-looks-like-the-guardian-cant-ignore-sex-vs-gender-any-more

C4 news have just reported that out of voters who haven't decided how to vote 62% of them are women.

I really do think, even if not for the same reason exactly, many more women are no longer prepared to go along with the status quo.

I thought long and hard about how to phrase this. This is the politest I can manage.

If you have come on this thread to tell people off for choosing to spoil their vote then please find a thread more to your liking and don't post here. We are all adults and we are intelligent enough to make a decision. We do not need your condescension or to be told we are wrong. We are taking part in the democratic process in the way we wish. It's not the way you do and that is fine, we are not telling you that you have to spoil your vote. Stop telling us not to. If there was anyone wavering then there is plenty of information already on this thread about the use of it.

Kindly offer the women (and any men) on this thread the respect we deserve.

Edited for typo.

Beautifully expressed, @Binglebong. Democracy is about freedom at its core: Britannica - "freely elected". It's hardly "free" if a woman were to feel coerced by online peer pressure into voting for a candidate or party that frightens her. And frankly, that's how bad it is for some of us - their policies are frightening to us. Using moral and emotional blackmail to force a choice that makes a voter deeply uncomfortable is... kind of inconsistent with democracy, really?!

Thank you Catiette. It took a long time to reduce the swearing!