The better way to stage a protest vote is to spoil your ballot.
I remember when there was a movement to have an elected senator on a civic election. Something like 40% of voters spoiled their ballot on the elected senator question. Which, in my opinion, sent a pretty clear and strong message about how people felt about an elected senate. And Preston Manning came out and said that voters had been 'confused and manipulated' by the anti-elected-senate movement.
Still, it seemed to me that the high ballot-spoiling rate pretty-much stopped elected-senate talk dead in its tracks. So the system works--even the 'protesting the system' portion of it.
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