Voter protest

Reasons for protesting

Solutions to your protest
How to register your protest vote
For many people, the issue in an election is not who to
vote for; its whether to vote at all.

In the 2005 general election (Tony Blairs third term) 17

million people who had registered to vote did not actually
vote. That was 4 out of every 10 registered voters, and it
was almost as many as voted Labour and Conservative
combined. The problem is that non-voters just become
invisible. They are not shown in the election results, and
not voting is explained away as public apathy.

So if you or your family and friends are fed up with UK

politics and thinking of not voting, we suggest 2 options:

1. Vote for a candidate you trust

Think again about the difference it could make if some of
those non-voters voted. The bigger parties were each only
supported by 2 in every 10 registered voters, so the
additional 4 in every 10 can completely change the result.
Any party or independent candidate can win with that
vote. So if there is a party or candidate who you trust to
represent local people with integrity and improve UK
politics, vote for them!

or

2. Vote BLANK as a visible protest

If you really dont want to support any of them, Vote
BLANK. It makes your protest visible, and it says
I believe in democracy and I will use my vote, but I do not
support any of the candidates in this election. I want a
better politics.

To vote blank you simply return your ballot paper with no

mark against any of the candidates.
BLANK Votes Count
All votes, including blank and spoiled votes, are counted
and announced in the results for each constituency on
election night.
Blank votes have traditionally been few in number
because people have been unaware of the option.
Instead, nearly 40% of registered voters have simply not
voted. There has therefore been no media or political
pressure to retain blank votes in the subsequent
presentations of the results, or even to require all
returning officers to separate blank from spoiled votes.
This will change if significant numbers of people vote
blank. It will become a key news story for an election.
Unlike non-voters, blank voters cannot be dismissed as
apathetic. The 2008 London Mayoral and Assembly
elections have set the precedent for blank votes being
formally recognised and retained in results. (In the
London Mayoral election, 13,034 blank votes were cast,
and in the Assembly Member election, 39,894 blank votes
were cast.)
Blank means BLANK
Some people like to write None of them or a comment on
the ballot paper. However, in the 2008 London elections
these marked papers were classified as rejected votes,
not blank votes, because it could be argued that the vote
was unclear or that the handwriting could make the voter

identifiable. So to vote blank, the ballot paper needs to be

left completely BLANK.
If you are disillusioned with UK politics, election
time is the moment to improve it. If we all take
part in this election - these could be exciting times.
http://www.blankvote.org.uk/blank_votes_count.html

How can we be sure blank votes will be counted?

Contact electoral commission
What was the result of blank votes following the 2010
election?
The AV voting system was rejected by the electorate in
2011, who favoured first-past-the-post.

Blank votes would reform democracy

Disillusionment is not indifference, and a blank vote
illustrates a continued willingness to engage with the
democratic process
Balaji Ravichandran / theguardian.com / Saturday 17 April
2010

Democracy, we learn at school, is government by, of, and

for the people. It's an attractive aphorism, and it sounds
convincing. We accept it without much doubt, and through
our adulthoods, believe that collectively, we hold the keys
to the government. Indeed, the illusion of power is so
complete that even when we are utterly powerless, it
never occurs to us to question whether the prevalent
forms of representative democracy are truly the least
harmful ways to self-governance.

We might be inclined to say yes, but ask a woman, a gay

man or someone of Jewish faith who lived through the
early 20th century, when a decisive majority was against
their rights, and soon one might feel different. Even today,
imagine one of those daily encounters with a government
official from the managero of an NHS trust to the
immigration officials at Heathrow and then ask yourself
the Coetzeean question: "Who serves whom? Who is the
servant, who the master?" Do you still feel powerful? Do
you still think it is your government?
There is something wrong about democracy as we practise
it the self same democracy that our governments seem
intent on exporting elsewhere. Better than oppressive
autocracies and theocracies, you might say. Sure, but
without being a moral relativist, is that enough? For, by
presupposing to be the most legitimate means for the
transfer of power, and never questioning the source of
that legitimacy, even democracy stifles dissent within and
debates outside its own realms.

A person who chooses to abstain, or cast a blank vote, is

accused of having committed an outright offence, a sin,
against the unchallenged reign of democratic principles,
and therefore excluded from political discourse. If you
want to challenge the status quo, the argument goes, you
have to earn the right to do so, and within democracy.
Form, join or support a party, stand for or vote in
elections, win, and then, with the mandate, effect reform.
By just abstaining or spoiling your votes, you're just
wasting an opportunity, and therefore are apathetic,
reckless and irresponsible. With us or against us. Sounds
familiar?
Totalitarian democracy, therefore, is by no means an
oxymoron.
With the general elections coming up, and political and
ideological differences between parties becoming
indiscernible, we struggle to find someone who comes
close to representing our individual philosophies. More
often than not, every party embodies two or more
principles we feel are fundamentally incompatible.
Quietism is not exactly welcome, and may even be
counterproductive. Those of us who still want to engage
with the democratic process, are, of course, not allowed to
say: we don't like any of the parties, and short of a
political rebirth, none of the parties are welcome. A poll by
Mori in 2001 showed that more than 30% of voters would
turn out to vote if the ballot had "none of the above" as an
option, which has prompted Steve of Stevenage to form a
party called No Candidate Deserves My Vote. Which in turn
begs the question of whether it is sensible to attribute low
turnouts merely to voter apathy. Disillusionment, after all,
is not the same as indifference.
Where cynicism and dissatisfaction infect the bodypolitik,
and self-serving hunger for long-term power motivates
politicians, the grounds are fertile both for the roots of
widespread intolerance, and for the birth of a revolution.
And it may well be to our advantage if we choose the
latter. Thankfully, it can be achieved quite easily, and with
devastating results. Jos Saramago shows us how.

In Ensaio sobre a Lucidez (Essay on Lucidity, or Seeing),

the supposed sequel to his much misunderstood bestseller
Ensaio sobre a Cegueira ([Essay on] Blindness), Saramago
imagines a cosmopolitan city where the inhabitants
become disaffected with the unwillingness of the political
parties to engage with them. So, in ways unknown, the
citizens collectively decide to actuate a silent revolution
that would force politicians to take note by casting blank
votes, not once, but twice. Of course, blank votes are
normally considered spoilt, as is the case in the UK, and
therefore are usually not included when deciding upon the
majority, and let's face it, it is the majority that counts.
However, what if more than 80% of the populace, with an
exceptionally high turnout, decide to vote blank? How
could the politicians, and indeed the world, ignore it?
It would be easy, and wrong, to dismiss this as a mere
political fable. After all, this has not happened at any time
in the history of world democracy. But, done right, it may
be our best weapon to reform democracy within the rigid
conditions it imposes. (That is to say, blank votes should
have sufficient majority as to not give disproportional
representation to any party, especially hostile ones like
the BNP and Ukip.)
For, disillusioned as the population may be, blank votes as
opposed to outright abstention illustrate a continued, if
sceptical, willingness to engage with the democratic
process in its own current terms. It forces the politicians
out of the apparent insouciance which characterises their
actions when running the government, be it on local
issues such as ID cards and ministerial conduct to
international issues like genocide and war in foreign
territories. It further makes it possible for us to re-examine
the fragile foundations of representative democracy, and
our Hobbesian willingness to enter into an unequal, and
often unfair, contract with the government.
Above all, of course, it is the only way to scrutinise if
indeed it is the demos that is at the heart of a democracy,
or if democracy is nothing more than a convenient myth to
confer an illusion of absolutism to an arbitrary and
cunning political game of power transfer. If the former, it

would bring politicians to a halt; if the latter, it might well

bring democracy to a halt. Either way, we bring forth a
much needed revolution.
As an eligible voter, I intend to cast a blank vote. Perhaps,
thanks to the interconnecting presence of the web, and
social networking sites, we may be able to cast blank
votes in sufficiently high numbers. I would strongly urge
the readers to consider it.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/17/b
lank-votes-reform-democracy

With a general election coming up in 2015, I increasingly

meet British people who are pessimistic about their
options for election to Government. Our recent history has
experienced 13 years of New Labour, characterised by
unabashed fawning towards the United States, and which
led to this country starting an illegal war with Iraq, the
rationale for which was based on a string of lies.
The Conservatives, together with their Lib Dem coalition
partners, have decided that the economic problems of the
country is the fault of those with the least in society, and
more specifically benefit claimants. Emergency legislation
has been rushed through Parliament to gain access to our
communications data, as the European Courts ruled its
collection illegal. And the present Government is in
negotiation to establish a free trade agreement between
the US and the EU, which will take more power from the
people and hand it to the corporations.
Of the other candidates that will stand for election, no
party offers any hope that they will put the people first
and govern without misdeed and manipulation. A few
people maybe fortunate to abide in a constituency where
a principled independent will stand, but the majority will
not have that choice. For them, the system is bankrupt
and it is imperative that the none of the above option is
given serious consideration and equal billing at the ballot
box.
In contrast to rejected and spoilt votes, none of the
above or the blank vote is counted at official
referendums. It is not clear, however, if they are all
counted, reported and published in all constituencies. I am
seeking information on a number of related questions.
Given your expertise in psephology, I decided to seek your
help to find out the answers to some questions.
Who has the authority to decide if blank votes are
counted? What are the criteria for making that decision?
Who has the authority to decide if the blank vote count is
published? What are the criteria for making that decision?
Are the rules equally applicable in every constituency?

Is it possible to find out the blank vote count in previous

elections? Has that information been published?
What is the correct way to register a blank vote?

Is it possible to intentionally register a vote for none of the

given candidates (a blank vote) in a UK general election,
and for that vote to be counted?
What percentage of blank votes must be recorded before
they are announced and published?
Hi Gloria,
How's your week been? I decided to cut the working week
short and have a day off - my best decision of the week so
far.
So, now, having given this project some thought, I thought
I could contact the Electoral Commission to ask some
basic questions about voting. I spent a little while
researching information on their website and came to the
conclusion that "blank votes" (ie. not putting a mark on
the ballot sheet) is counted only as a rejected vote during
a general election. This would contradict the information
provided by blankvote.org and would not serve our
purpose.
What we want, I think, is for those who are not content
with the candidates put forward for election to Parliament,
to have their vote recognised, counted and published.
That statement would imply acceptance of the democratic
process but dissatisfaction with the candidates put
forward, and principally Political Parties. But some
questions we need to think about are: What about
independent candidates? For example, would you be
happy to vote for George Galloway? What about a party of
George Galloways? If you are dissatisfied with the
candidates, why dont you stand for election? Or is it the
democratic system that is bankrupt? Is it a system that
provides a semblance of choice, but in reality there is no

real choice? I am not clear on what my thoughts are on

this, but I do think it is important we can articulate the
issues.
The Electoral Commission's website
(http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/) has much
information on previous elections and I think should be our
first port of call. I could not find a telephone number but
their website does accept enquiries. I have drawn up a
couple of questions that I thought could get us on our way.
They are:
Is it possible to intentionally register a vote for none
of the given candidates (a blank vote) in a UK general
election, and for that vote to be counted and not
rejected?

What percentage of blank votes must be recorded

before they are announced and published?

Next steps would be dependent on the response to these

questions. If the general response is positive, it will simply
be a case of disseminating the information. However, if
the response is uninformative or generally negative, we
will need to think again about what it will take it achieve
the outcome we seek.
Do let me know what you think, at your leisure. I think it
would be really useful to meet up for a good relaxed chat,
if and when you have the time please dont feel obliged.
Weekends are best for me (its just unhurried) but can also
meet on weekday evenings. My mobile number is 07859
886946. I shall give you a call however, over the weekend.
All the best,
Barima
----- Forwarded Message ----From: Mark Nyack <[email protected]>

To: "'[email protected]'" <[email protected]>

Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 12:27 PM
Subject: Barima Asante - Other - 14-10-14
DearBarimaAsante

ThankyouforyouremailtotheElectoralCommission.

Itispossibleforanelectortopostablankballotpaperintotheballotbox,however,thisballotpaper
wouldbetreatedasadoubtfulballotpaperandnotincludedasavotetowardsacandidate.Whenthe
resultofanelectionisannouncedafterthecountthenumberofdoubtfulballotpapersarealsostated.

Kindregards

MarkNyack
CommunicationsOfficerPublicInformation
TheElectoralCommission
3BunhillRow
LondonEC1Y8YZ
Tel:02072710728
Fax:02072710505
www.electoralcommission.org.uk
www.aboutmyvote.co.uk