How to vote next week (vote spoiling)

[LastnightoftheBroms]

Does anyone know if "respect my sex if you want my X" is still being used to spoil votes at the ballot box? 10 years ago I'd have likely voted Labour/LibDem or Green perhaps but the TWAW guff from all left leaning parties has meant that I have spoilt my vote for years now.
Their stance (or lack of stance) on the SC ruling last week means I'll be spoiling my vote again. Is there a line that other people are planning to use? I'd rather back others up with the same sentiment than come up with my own ramblings/drawings/limericks etc.

It's really silly and a waste of time to spoil your vote. Choose your preferred candidate or don't bother voting.

I haven't decided what I'm doing but I'm definitely taking the effort to go to the polling station. Not voting feels like apathy and I do care.

No its not : you're turning up and expressing your opinion

I spoil my vote because my local Labour councillor told me I should if I didn't want to vote for anyone. Spoiling your vote is a perfectly valid way to communicate your point and I know a great many people did this at the general election last year.
Answering a thread you have no helpful comments for however, is a silly waste of time.

All votes are counted including ‘spoilt votes’

Don’t bother voting = suggests the voter is not bothered.
Spoilt vote = suggests the voter has no faith in any candidate

Have you emailed your candidates?
I did and was really surprised to get a very positive response from my labour candidate, expressing complete support for women’s sex based rights and single-sex spaces.

Yes, thank you. You've said that far more eloquently than I would have . . . that's why I don't fancy coming up with my own witticisms on polling day!

I haven't actually, perhaps it is worth an ask! Did you just ask what their stance was or did you ask what they planned to do with the SC ruling etc?

Well you could always go with protect women or SC rules.

SC RULES OK!

I wrote stressing my support for SSS and asking for clarification on how the Supreme Court ruling will be reflected in policies, service provision etc.
I received such a sincere and supportive reply I was blown away.

I always get very frustrated by posts dismissing the value of a spoiled ballot. As someone who has actually attended counts, I know that 'doubtful' ballot papers are put into a separate pile and checked in view of the party officials (all parties are entitled to nominate a certain amount of people to check the votes). They are usually activists who are always trying to identify if there is an underlying trend or if the voter has simply made a mistake. They could include the agents who feed back what they have observed to candidates.

I personally have a lot more respect for someone who has spoiled their ballot as opposed to the 'nothing makes any difference' brigade.

I think you're right on that one nettie434. I was going to be part of the nothing makes a difference bunch until that councillor suggested it but abstaining has never sat well with me.
It's good to have it confirmed that they are looked at though. That's why it would be good to have a line that lots of people can use (i.e. Respect my X..) to clearly show those officials voters with a shared gripe!

They are only looked at though @LastnightoftheBroms to confirm that they are indeed not a valid vote. Whether it’s “none of the above” , a cock and balls, a lengthy political polemic or a witty one liner won’t be noted or remembered.

if they truly had any impact we’d no longer have Police and Crime Commissioners.

The reason they count spoiled votes is because the returning officer is responsible for every ballot received. If, for example they receive 1000 ballot papers, 500 votes for one candidate, 480 for another and 20 spoiled, they can't just account for the ballot papers that constitute legal votes. Everyone would want to know where the missing 20 are. So they count the spoiled papers. They do not take account of the reasons and they do not register them as protest votes. It's an idiotic thing to do and it's anti-democratic to encourage others to do it.

So it's better to vote for someone you have no faith in whatsoever or not vote at all? I'm afraid I respectfully disagree.
I'm also not sure how it's antidemocratic to encourage others to do the same (which I'd like to point out I am not doing- I have asked what others intend to do). If it's antidemocratic to encourage vote spoiling it's antidemocratic to encourage voting for a particular candidate/party as well. If the votes are counted in front of party officials and they all reflect the same trend, does that not give the official something to think about?

@LastnightoftheBroms you may be rather over-thinking this. What percentage of votes do you think actually are spoiled? Last general election it was 0.4% The median lower again at 0.35%

all the candidates and their agents are interested in - and only if the result is really close, or they are within a few votes of not losing their deposit - is whether any papers classed as spoilt are really valid, and therefore might change the outcome.

There is no interest in anything else.

look at any results declaration and you’ll see that the spoilt papers are split into four categories - want of an official mark, voting more more than one candidate / more candidates than entitled to, writing or mark by which the voter could be identified, being unmarked or wholly void for any uncertainty.

Nothing else is captured.

that is no reason to stop you spoiling your paper in whatever way you may choose. However don’t imagine anyone at the election count will have any interest in your rationale.

I was struggling with this and (on the advice of another mumsnetter) emailed each of the candidates that had details available on here to ask their views on the SC ruling:
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/your-election-information

But it may be a bit late to get a response now! Maybe see if they have a Facebook profile?

No, it's actually a more effective protest to not turn up at all, rather than spoil your ballot paper. They assume that spoiled ballot papers are errors; electorate apathy they do take notice of. Please note that I did not accuse you of being anti-democratic. I said that it was anti-democratic to encourage others to spoil ballot papers "as a protest". I did not at any point suggest that you had done so.

Do what you prefer, but you’re not being more democratic than those who disagree with you. Candidates have the right to see all the spoiled votes. Those that don’t bother, or ignore the messages they’ve been given, are ignoring their potential voters.

When I spoil my vote, I make it clear which party I would have voted for.

And no one reads it.

Some considerations when deciding how to vote, given what's happened and the uphill struggle ahead. drewaugustine.com/drews-news-truth-at-last/

Can I just remind you to be careful how you spoil your vote. I was at a count where someone had drawn the cock'n'balls across the box for the local Tory candidate. It was judged to be a valid voter's mark as it was within the box. So whoever was trying to protest actually voted for that candidate. It was a close vote too.

Please vote for someone, even if it is just the least worst.

Apologies. I have a very poor memory and promptly forgotten I'd mentioned this until I heard back from our local Labour MP today (unfortunately quite non committal but ended with don't worry I've met loads of LGBTQ charities and I'll keep pushing for trans rights, so I'm happy to have abandoned Labour). I did spoil my vote (and was careful not to put a cock and balls in the one I hated most) and I'll continue to do so if all the parties on offer are dreadful. Reform were the winners here- by quite a margin.