A Deliberately Spoiled Ballot Paper Is A Vote

Not voting is dismissed as apathy. 

If you put your X on a party as a protest vote it is just counted put in a bundle with an elastic band around it. 

Vote for whomever you really want, but if you want to show you are dissatisfied with the UK electoral system or the choice of policies, then there are two options;

1. Leave the ballot paper blank and put it in the ballot box.
2. Spoil the ballot paper

Leaving the ballot paper blank means it is counted as such. There is an organisation suggesting this action (http://www.blankvote.org.uk/). My feeling is that this could be almost dismissed as easily as “apathy” as “a mistake”. An idiot that doesn’t know to put a cross in a box! Clearly this harder to dismiss if numbers are large, but the opportunity to vote is infrequent so why leave any doubt. 

However, spoiling your ballot paper does four things; 

1. It shows you are not apathetic 
2. It is counted
3. it can’t be dismissed as a mistake, If you do it correctly
4. It is shown to each of the candidates in turn (not just counted and bundled). So if you write “you’re all a load of self-serving, lying bastards” Each candidate is asked “is this a vote for you?” The most common text is “None of the above”. Another common text is to right “No” in each of the boxes.

What you write is up to you (suggestions welcome, please try to be witty not crude), but don’t be dismissed as apathetic, make your vote count, make you opinion heard. You have a much louder voice than you think if you use it at the ballot box

Some interesting info around UK elections

There is a petition to get a box on every UK ballot paper for None Of The Above (NOTA). So protest votes are properly registered and recorded. Here 

The lowest turnout in a general election was recorded in 1918 at 57.2 %, due to the end of the First World War. Between 1922 and 1997 turnout remained above 71 %. In 1950 and 1951 the turnout was 83.9% and 82.6% respectively the two highest turnouts recorded. 

These two elections on consecutive years of 1950 and 1951 show some interesting things. That 1.3% drop saw the Conservatives get in over Labour. Plus in 1951 Labour had the highest number of votes ever (to date of this blog) for any party and still Labour lost. This is a problem of the “first past the post” voting system and was a result of the Liberals not contending some seats that resulted in Liberal voters voting Conservative.

Party	Votes	Seats	Change	UK Vote Share (%)	GB Vote Share (%)
Conservative	13,718,199	321	+ 23	48.0	47.8
Labour	13,948,883	295	- 20	48.8	49.4
Liberal	730,546	6	- 3	2.6	2.6
Others	198,966	3	n/c	0.6	0.3

In 2010 only 65.1% voted and only 20% for the Conservatives. 80% didn’t vote for the party that governs the country. 45% voted against the Conservatives.