In
voting
Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...
, a
ballot
A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16 ...
is considered spoilt, spoiled, void, null, informal, invalid or stray if a law declares or an
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
authority determines that it is invalid and thus not included in the
vote count. This may occur accidentally or deliberately. The total number of spoilt votes in a United States election has been called the residual vote. In Australia, such votes are generally referred to as informal votes, and in Canada they are referred to as rejected votes.
In some jurisdictions spoilt votes are counted and reported.
Types of spoilt vote
A ballot may be spoilt in a number of ways, including:
* Failing to mark the ballot at all (
blank vote
A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or " none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms ...
), or otherwise defacing the ballot instead of attempting to vote.
* Filling out the ballot in a manner that is incompatible with the voting system being used, e.g.:
** Marking more choices than permitted (
overvoting), or fewer than necessary (
undervoting).
** Filling a
preference ballot out of sequence, e.g. 1-2-2-3-4 or 1-2-4-5-6, 1-4-2-4-5. In most cases, only the first two choices in these examples would be counted as valid.
** Adding a
write-in candidate
A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...
when such an option is not permitted. The vote for this candidate would be discarded.
* Filling the ballot in a manner that makes the voter's decision unclear.
* Physically deforming ballots, especially those counted by machine.
* Making marks on the ballot other than those necessary to complete it, from which the voter's identity can be ascertained, compromising the
secrecy of the ballot
The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...
.
As an example, UK law specifically precludes ballots "on which votes are given for more candidates than the voter is entitled to vote for", "on which anything is written or marked by which the voter can be identified" or "which
reunmarked or void for uncertainty".
Replacement ballots
If a voter makes a mistake while completing a ballot, it may be possible to cancel it and start the voting process again.
In the United States, cancelled physical ballots may be called "spoiled ballots", as distinct from an "invalid vote" which has been cast.
In Canada, a ''spoiled ballot'' is one that has been handled by an elector in such a manner that it is ruined beyond use, or that the deputy returning officer finds soiled or improperly printed. The spoilt ballot is not placed in the ballot box, but rather is marked as spoilt by the deputy returning officer and set aside. The elector is given another ballot. A 'rejected ballot' is one which cannot be counted due to improper marking by the voter. Examples of this are ballots which have more than one mark, the intent of the voter cannot be ascertained, or the voter can be identified by their mark.
In many jurisdictions, if multiple elections or referendums are held simultaneously, then there may be separate physical ballots for each, which may be printed on different-colored paper and posted into separate ballot boxes. In the United States, a single physical ballot is often used to record multiple separate votes. In such cases one can distinguish an "invalid ballot", where all votes on the ballot are rendered invalid, from a "partially valid" ballot, with some votes are valid and others invalid.
Intentional spoiling
A voter may deliberately spoil a vote, for example as a
protest vote
A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or "none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms a ...
, especially in
compulsory voting
Compulsory voting, also called mandatory voting, is the requirement in some countries that eligible citizens register and vote in elections. Penalties might be imposed on those who fail to do so without a valid reason. According to the CIA World ...
jurisdictions, to show disapproval of the candidates standing whilst still taking part in the electoral process. Intentionally spoiling someone else's ballot before or during tabulation is an
electoral fraud.
The validity of an election may be questioned if there is an unusually high proportion of spoilt votes. In multiple-vote U.S. ballots, "voter roll-off" is calculated by subtracting the number of votes cast for a "down-ballot" office, such as mayor, from the number of votes cast for a "top-of-the-ballot" office, such as president. When the election jurisdiction does not report voter turnout, roll-off can be used as a proxy for residual votes. Some voters may only be interested in voting for the major offices, and not bother filling in the lower positions, resulting in a partially valid ballot.
While it is not illegal to advocate informal voting in
Australian federal election
Elections in Australia take place periodically to elect the legislature of the Commonwealth of Australia, as well as for each Australian state and territory and for local government councils. Elections in all jurisdictions follow similar princi ...
s, it was briefly illegal to advise voters to fill out their ballots using duplicated numbers.
Albert Langer was jailed for violating an
injunction not to advocate incomplete preference voting for the
1996 Australian federal election
The 1996 Australian federal election was held to determine the members of the 38th Parliament of Australia. It was held on 2 March 1996. All 148 seats of the House of Representatives and 40 seats of the 76-seat Senate were up for election. Th ...
.
During the
2021 Hong Kong legislative elections, pro-democratic supporters urged voters to cast spoilt ballots or not vote in the election in protest of the
rewriting of election rules by the National People's Congress in Beijing. Despite the Government's attempts to criminalise inciting voters to cast invalid ballots or not vote, as well as attempts to boost voter turnout, the election recorded a record number of invalid ballots as well as historically low voter turnout.
Unintentional spoiling
Voter instructions are usually intended to minimize the accidental spoiling of votes.
Ballot design
A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16t ...
can aid or inhibit clarity in an election, resulting in less or more accidental spoiling. Some election officials have discretion to allow ballots where the criteria for acceptability are not strictly met but the voter's intention is clear. More complicated
electoral system
An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...
s may be more prone to errors.
Group voting ticket A group voting ticket (GVT) is a shortcut for voters in a preferential voting system, where a voter can indicate support for a list of candidates instead of marking preferences for individual candidates. For multi-member electoral divisions with s ...
s were introduced in Australia owing to the high number of informal votes cast in
single transferable vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...
(STV) elections, but have since been abolished in all
states and territories aside from
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. When multiple
Irish STV elections are simultaneous (as for
local
Local may refer to:
Geography and transportation
* Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand
* Local, Missouri, a community in the United States
* Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...
and
European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
elections) some voters have marked, say, 1-2-3 on one ballot paper and 4-5-6 on the other; some returning officers consequently allowed 4-5-6 ballots to be counted, until a
Supreme Court case in 2015 ruled they were invalid.
The United States
Election Assistance Commission's survey of the
2006 midterm elections reported undervoting rate of 0.1% in US Senate elections and 1.6% in US House elections; overvotes were much rarer. Some paper-based voting systems and most
DRE voting machine
A DRE voting machine, or direct-recording electronic voting machine, records votes by means of a ballot display provided with mechanical or electro-optical components that can be activated by the voter. These are typically buttons or a touchsc ...
s can notify voters of under-votes and over-votes. The
Help America Vote Act
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (), or HAVA, is a United States federal law which passed in the House 357-48 and 92-2 in the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002.United States Department of Justice Civil Rights ...
requires that voters are informed when they have overvoted, unless a paper-ballot voting system is in use.
Help America Vote Act
Section 301(a)1(A)(iii)
See also
* Election fraud
* Ballot design in the Single Transferable Vote: discusses ''exhausted votes'', which cannot be transferred owing to too few preferences being expressed
* Refused ballot
References
{{voting systems
Ballots
Voting theory
Protest tactics
Elections terminology