Quote:
Originally Posted by 4X4
How exactly do you spoil a ballot? Write F.U. on it? Not that I'm thinking of doing it, just wondering what that really means. And do they bother reporting how many ballots were spoiled?
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Many moons ago I worked at a polling station for Elections Canada for a referendum vote.
Can't remember what my title was, but I was "the person that handed you the ballot". Then I counted them when it was over. They were counted several times by several people. Anyway...
The spoiled ballots were set aside in this sad little pile. To be considered spoiled, they either hadn't been marked at all, marked both "yes" and "no", or they had some illegible message scrawled on them with one of those little pencils. Even if they had clearly voted yes or no, if it said anything else, they were spoiled.
We had hundreds of ballots, but maybe two dozen were spoiled. They were counted, put in a separate box, and dropped into the river for all I know. Nobody cared about them. They didn't make a difference, and no protest was noted. They might as well have not existed. Only the person that spoiled the ballot knew that the ballot had been spoiled. It was completely pointless.
So if anyone wants to spoil your ballot, don't bother. A spoiled ballot gets less attention than the ballot for a person who doesn't vote at all. They actually report voter turnout on the news.