Spoiling Ballots at the Non-Thinking Housewife

[Lostie]

Over at the Non-Thinking Housewife the suggestion has been made that they should vote for third party candidates or spoil their ballots. I have to say that sounds like a great idea to me because the less votes for Romney, the better!

Fundies! Spoil your ballots, abstain altogether, or vote for a third party.

http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/201 ... more-46265

[CrazySister]

Yes, I'm all for them doing this, but WTH? Do they seriously think they're actually doing (their brand of) good by doing this? They're total morons! Yes Zoo, this includes little, educated, you.

[ElphabaGalinda]

I hope they do this! Much better than them all voting for Romney. As fundies, they're not really intelligent enough to realize they won't be doing any good. I love it when fundies say they won't vote, because that means one less vote for the crazies.

[Minerva]

I'm not going to bash ballot spoiling, as I'm pretty sure I've got friends who've done it, but hey fundies! If enough of you spoil your ballots maybe next election's republican candidate will listen to you more! You should totally start a movement.

[PraiseSeitan]

What precisely is the point of spoiling their ballots? It's not sending anybody a message, it's making more work for poll workers who've already put in a 16+ hour day. I can see doing it if you live someplace like Australia where you're fined if you don't vote, but that's not the case in the US.

Seriously though, if you're not happy with the choices for President or Sanitation District or whatever you can just skip that item on your ballot and vote the stuff you care about. Our scan machines in my particular county will prompt you that you missed something, but you can say that's okay and scan your ballot as-is, it's just an effort to make sure they're not missing a vote where the mark was too light or something.

FWIW, you'd be amazed at the number of people who just vote for President and leave the however many pages of down ballot races and propositions blank.

[JesusFightClub]

As I've said, I was once a candidate for election :lol:

Spoilt ballots, at least in the UK, are a fucking waste of time. They are utterly stupid. Whether you draw a gigantic cock on the paper or write in a reasoned critique of all the main parties' policies, you will get the same response. "OK, spoilt or not spoilt? Spoilt? Is that a majority...yes that's a majority, we'll go with that. Mark the ballot paper as spoilt, please."

Nobody cares that you spoilt your paper on a POINT OF IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE. They just think you're a twat who's holding up the electoral process.

Also, no-one reads what you wrote, any more than they study the cock for anatomical accuracy.

[Vex]

Um, why bother showing up just to spoil your ballot? Why not just not turn up?

People will donkey vote here and think it will send a message, but it doesn't. I'm using 'donkey vote' in the sense of marking your ballot in the order the candidates appear in rather than voting in order of your preference. It's kind of what people do here rather than defacing their ballots. Not that people don't do that too.

[Sumeri]

As I've said, I was once a candidate for election :lol:

Spoilt ballots, at least in the UK, are a fucking waste of time. They are utterly stupid. Whether you draw a gigantic cock on the paper or write in a reasoned critique of all the main parties' policies, you will get the same response. "OK, spoilt or not spoilt? Spoilt? Is that a majority...yes that's a majority, we'll go with that. Mark the ballot paper as spoilt, please."

Nobody cares that you spoilt your paper on a POINT OF IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE. They just think you're a twat who's holding up the electoral process.

Also, no-one reads what you wrote, any more than they study the cock for anatomical accuracy.

This just made me laugh and laugh. Thank you.

[shedemei]

Um, why bother showing up just to spoil your ballot? Why not just not turn up?

If they don't vote, they would not be seen as boycotting the polls on some ethical concern; they'd just look like they don't care enough or are too lazy to go out and vote. They want people to know that they care enough to vote and are not lazy, bless their hearts. Since they also want people to know what they think of the available choices, they do this.