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 will 100% be voting and 100% spoiling my ballot.

Why can't people tell the difference between how voting works in a referendum and a normal FPTP election?

Thanks for that I thought the same but hadn't got to finding the figures yet.
I seriously doubt anyone who really wanted to remain in the EU spoiled their ballot, because why would they? I do know of a few who didn't bother because they thought it would be an easy win 🙄but that's not the same.

All spoiled papers do is provide some amusement for the tellers, candidates and agents.

But at least you will provide some variety from the dick drawings.

news.sky.com/story/you-wouldnt-believe-the-amount-of-dicks-secrets-of-a-ballot-counter-13151941

Ah, not again.
Ffs WE KNOW

I'm really hoping that someone comes along to tell us what happens to the spoilt ballot papers.

I believe they vanish into thin air, as if they've never existed. Or something like that!

I have no intention of spoiling my ballot, but voting is also showing them how you feel, just in a different way.

Eh? Why?
You seemed to be saying that spoiling a vote was not a "valid option" and waste of a vote. That's why I asked you about independent parties (or any party except the two main ones, for that matter) as one could also argue that voting for them is also a wasted vote...
why is it different depending on what the party stands for?!.

The point about spoiling your ballot as opposed to just not voting is because they have to declare along with the numbers for each candidates the number of spoit votes.

I suspect in this election if everybody was honest, well over 50% of those turning up at a polling station would do that.

And it is just dumb to say it you dont vote you have opted out of former the new Government.

Under FPTP most of us have no ability to influence anything.

It is only people in marginal constituences who have any power.

Idealy if anyone could be bothered, there should be a web site where you can go and state why you spoilt your ballot paper.

Its this silencing of what is really going on, and the stagnant political system that means so many people feel disenfranchised.

And all the maudlin malarky about how the Suffragettes fought for the votes so we have to actually disrespects them.

Do you really think that the women who went to jail, were force fed and worse would in this present time and just meekly turn up and say oh this is what the patriarchy is offering me so of course I will be a nice obedient woman and just tick a box for someone I dont not believe in.

I dont think so.

I'm so glad we have the ability to spoil our vote. I'll be doing exactly that on Thursday for the 1st time ever. What a bloody mess this country is, not a single decent one amongst them. Not just in this country too, look at France and the rise of the far right. The West in general is crumbling.

I think I will write "JK Rowling for PM".

And all the maudlin malarky about how the Suffragettes fought for the votes so we have to actually disrespects them.

Do you really think that the women who went to jail, were force fed and worse would in this present time and just meekly turn up and say oh this is what the patriarchy is offering me so of course I will be a nice obedient woman and just tick a box for someone I dont not believe in.

I agree. In 1911 suffragettes and suffragists literally went into hiding to avoid taking part in the 1911 census - they were prepared to become invisible in society in order to make their protest.

I just got home (it's 4pm here) to find my ballot paper in the letterbox.

I've just scrawled "none of the above. I am unable to vote for Tories, racists or people who believe a woman can have a penis" on it.

So my conscience is now clear.

The question is, do I just stick it in the postbox and hope it arrives by Thursday, or do I pay for express delivery so it arrives on time?

I never realised postal ballots were so popular. I'm a big believer in the cross in the box. But not this time, unfortunately.

That just looks like you don't care.

I'm an overseas voter so it's a postal vote or proxy vote.

I wasn't aware that stickers and felt tips were too expensive for working class people.

Brexit, being a referendum, was a rare circumstance of each vote having the same weight and each vote mattering. There are no safe seats in a referendum.

It's not a valid comparison.

Stick it in and hope, I think. It's priority mail once it hits these shores, so should hopefully be OK (can it go into the postal system tonight?). How much is express?

I'm in a call until 5pm. I'll try and get to the post office before it closes at 5:30 and see whether there is an express service which can get it there in time and if so how much it costs. If it's too expensive I'll just stick it in the box and hope for the best.

Threads like this demonstrate just how successful female socialisation actually is.

In every single election, every single revolution, every single instance of civil disobedience, women are told to wait. To ignore their own needs and to do "what must be done for the greater good." We are told that once X or Y has been achieved, we will be remembered and rewarded for our patience. That the fight is bigger and more important than our rights and our needs. That we must wait and hold the line and be good girls because we cannot prioritise our needs right now. But that day will come soon. Very, very soon.

Well fuck that. I am tired of waiting. I am tired of being expected to prioritise the needs of everyone else above my own. I am tired of being expected to hold myself to a higher moral standard at every turn. I am tired of being expected to be kind and think of everyone else.

Controversial as some of you may deem it: my right to my sex class and its associated protections are just as important as the NHS and education. Why shouldn't they be?

I will not take part in this incessant game any longer. I will not vote for a party that is trying to tell me that my sex class either does not actually exist or that if it does, it is not important.

Let others take the fall this time. Let others put their needs on the back burner. Because if every single woman in this country who is sick and tired of this nonsense spoilt their ballot on Thursday then yes, it would make a huge difference.

Stop telling women to take a backseat yet again. I for one am done.

I have found this thread useful because arguing for spoiling ballots has really cemented to me it's worth. So thanks doomsayers telling me not to do it!

It will count as a vote to that candidate

@MoiraPose well bloody said, I couldn't agree more!