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?

I am planning to cover my ballot paper in stickers

I can't get into the mindset of complacency of not voting. I get that people have an issue that is of great importance to them. I do myself and it certainly influences my vote. What I don't get is how you can look at the entirety of the society we live in, and not care enough about anything else, not education, or healthcare, or social care, or immigration, or national finances, taxation, benefits, transport, the judicial system, our approach to international relations, that you can't find some incentive to have your say, whether it is for change, or for the status quo. "Women won't wheesht" is a real irony here, when you are giving up your electoral voice. As someone else has said, this isn't action. The party of women's candidate will not get my vote, but she has taken political action. "Coordinating" non voting by discussing what to write is a poor proxy for that.

I was seriously considering spoiling but after the last couple of days (Starmer invoking his pantomime outrage over Brianna Ghey AGAIN to deflect the issue in the TV debate and when challenged by Jane on the radio) I've decided to do the unthinkable and vote Tory in a desperate attempt to hold back a little of the labour landslide.

BUT, if I was going to spoil I think I'd opt for

Respect my seX
Or you don't get my X

with an 'X' in the box of both the tory and labour candidates (if that turns out to be possible on the slip!) so they will have to scrutinise the paper at the count to agree it isn't a vote for either.

Can you share which spoilt ballot paper vote achieved more than apathy?

@WinterTrees vote Conservative if you want to, your democratic choice. If you don't want Labour, that's the obvious choice. You may be lucky if many others think the same way and we get another Conservative government.

I mean that it is showing a deliberate disgust. Not going at all suggests apathy and not caring - going but spoiling is a deliberate action.

This is not the place to berate or dismiss those who have made this decision. You do what feels right for you, and leave others to do what feels right for them.

None of the people in my constituency are people who represent me, or, judging by social media, others in the area. Realistically it will be labour or conservatives who become the next government. They both have multiple policies (not to do with sexes) that I cannot bring myself to support. Neither have polices that I can. Yes, there's a huge number of things beyond the gender issues and I don't trust this either of these piles on any of them!

Other than to make a person feel better is has exactly the same impact and power as someone not bothering to turn up. You are free to make that choice but lets not pretend it actually means anything or will change anything.

Good grief. No berating or telling people what to do! It's a discussion thread. That's my opinion on this matter. People are free to do this, or not. In my humble opinion it's a waste of time, but clearly people disagree with me, which is fine.
I am not telling people what to do or how to vote.

Going to the polling station and spoiling is a political action. Staying home and not bothering to make any mark at all is apathy. You might be content to vote for someone you don't support, but others are not of the same mind. How difficult is that to understand?

Write across more than one box.

Writing in a single box could potentially be seen as voting for that one candidate.

If it's across multiple boxes, then the counters/candidates have to look at it to see if it's potentially a vote for one of them. (And will conclude it's spoiled if across multiple boxes

It is a thread for people who have already decided to spoil.

There have been other threads for those who want to debate the very concept of spoiling elsewhere.

It's our individual choice what we do with our vote. One female friend has voted Labour because of the NHS. A male acquaintance is voting Reform as he feels the 2 main parties don't care about ordinary people and don't see them having any answers to the huge problem s we are facing. I'm not going to criticise either of them as you have to vote with your conscience.

I really WANT to vote Labour, but after all the appalling, ill informed things they've said about women, I just cant. I've voted Labour all my life, I remember staying up all night in 1997 with friends to witness the Labour landslide, it was so joyful, like watching the end of a dictatorship.And I'm heartbroken that I can't in all good conscience vote for them this time. I've thought about this a LOT, and I keep going back and forth, but I have decided I will NOT vote for a party that is either so ideologically captured, stupid, mendacious or ignorant about this issue that goes to the very heart of my being as a woman.

Political action with the same impact as apathy.

Right. So I'm not allowed to comment?
I hear you loud and clear.
Bye 👋

I've had stickers made which I'll stick all around the margins.

Perhaps you could take a big red/blue felt pen and do the same ( write appropriate comment) - in the margins......not in the candidate boxes.

No it isn't. It is the opposite of apathy. Apathy is voting for people you don't support just because you think you should.

Apathy would be not voting at all.

Do listen to Grace Petrie's A young woman's tale on that.

Vote for one of the other parties who do have a policy on something that you care about. Increase their vote share.

I don't get your opinion. I'm in a totally safe Labour seat. Either voting for any of the other parties or spoiling my paper would have the same political impact to apathy/staying at home in the sense that the same person will win whatever I do or don't do. But both will have a different impact to apathy/staying at home in the sense that I will have registered my opinion.

Spoiling your ballot is not voting at all.
Spoilt ballots are counted themselves, but are not added to the votes counted.

@Corinthiana I totally disagree. All the spoilt papers, or papers where vote is not cast in the standard way, are scrutinised. This will be by the Agents and possibly candidate themselves. A spoilt ballot is still a vote. If you stay away there is nothing to differentiate you from a can't be arsed person.

Okie dokie. Its the emperor's version of protest.

Custom made stickers and large felt tips, tell me you are middle class without telling me you are middle class.