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Post by juju on May 28, 2017 11:18:37 GMT
I read an article on 'voter confessions' the other day (including one who said they tell their friends they vote Labour but secretly vote Tory - bet that happens all the time :/ ) and someone said they always spoil their ballot paper.
I've never really understood the point of this. If it is a protest, how does that work? Surely the spoilt papers just get thrown away, don't they? Why bother turning up at all?
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Post by JoeP on May 28, 2017 14:17:19 GMT
So you can tell your friends who actually saw you go to the polling station that you voted X?
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Post by Miisa on May 28, 2017 14:33:20 GMT
It counts as voted in the stats and sends a stronger protest message than simply not bothering. I have never done it, but would respect a spoiled balloter much more than a non-voter.
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Post by Moose on May 28, 2017 17:55:55 GMT
Yeah I gather it's mainly done as a protest
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Post by juju on May 29, 2017 10:28:07 GMT
It makes sense if they are counted in some way, but I always assumed they were just binned. I guess they contribute to voter turnout, at least.
Still seems a waste of time, but I suppose there must be some satisfaction from rejecting all of the candidates in some elections.
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Post by Alvamiga on Jun 7, 2017 12:07:01 GMT
I suspect that unless a very large number were spoiled, that it would get much attention still. It is recorded but still doesn't practically help if a bad candidate gets in.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 7, 2017 12:58:51 GMT
Here, because we have mandatory voting, it makes a statement. The numbers are counted (not to a party obviously) and if they're high, that can send a strong message to the status quo parties.
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Post by tangent on Jun 7, 2017 13:20:34 GMT
It would be quite an achievement if you spoiled your ballot paper and you were the only one to do so. You could tell your children, not only was your vote counted but it was also announced in the results.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2017 14:31:41 GMT
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Post by jayme on Jun 8, 2017 22:21:19 GMT
I agreed to vote swap with someone, and it just doesn't work because you can't trust the other person. She is a staunch republican who didn't feel right with her conscience, voting for Trump but she also hated Clinton. She told me about the vote swapping sight she'd found, so I said I'd write in Bernie, because I don't really like Hillary. So we signed up. Then I voted for Hillary, anyway, because I'm not an idiot.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2017 3:51:22 GMT
I agreed to vote swap with someone, and it just doesn't work because you can't trust the other person. She is a staunch republican who didn't feel right with her conscience, voting for Trump but she also hated Clinton. She told me about the vote swapping sight she'd found, so I said I'd write in Bernie, because I don't really like Hillary. So we signed up. Then I voted for Hillary, anyway, because I'm not an idiot. It can work if you're willing to put in the legwork and find out about the other person. Sure, there will be examples where things don't work out right.
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Post by Alvamiga on Jun 10, 2017 17:29:58 GMT
I found it interesting how many people had voted for "too many candidates". Seems a good idea to block the votes of people who can't count to one!
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