A refused ballot, or similar alternative, is a choice available to voters in many
elections
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 ...
. This is an alternative for many people to casting a disparaging
spoiled ballot
In voting, a ballot is considered spoilt, spoiled, void, null, informal, invalid or stray if a law declares or an election authority determines that it is invalid and thus not included in the vote count. This may occur accidentally or delibe ...
, which is not counted separately from ballots which have been accidentally spoiled.
Canada
Some provinces allow a ballot to be refused on the grounds that no party satisfies the elector's vote. Declined ballots are only legislated in the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta; the option is only available for provincial elections.
During the
2000 Canadian federal election
The 2000 Canadian federal election was held on November 27, 2000, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 37th Canadian Parliament, 37th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister of Canada, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Pa ...
, a number of voters (chiefly in
Edmonton, Alberta
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anch ...
) ate their ballots, as part of what they dubbed the ''Edible Ballot Society'', to protest what they saw as inherently unfair elections. The stunt led
Elections Canada
Elections Canada (french: Élections Canada)The agency operates and brands itself as Elections Canada, its legal title is Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (). is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering Canadian federal electi ...
to propose that there be legislation allowing federal ballots to be officially refused.
Russia
Russian electoral ballots used to contain a box named ''Against All'', allowing the voter to register a "protest vote" against all the candidates running. This was abolished by the
Duma
A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions.
The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were f ...
in 2006.
/sup>
A March 2004 opinion poll saw ruling President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime m ...
draw 70% support from Russians, but "Against All" managed to claim the second place, ahead of the other candidates.
In December 2004, "Against All" actually managed to draw the highest number of votes in the electoral districts of St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Sverdlovsk and Ulyanovsk
Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population:
The city, founded as Simbirsk (), was the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin (bor ...
. A repeat election led to St. Petersburg and Sverdlovsk electing proper Members of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members oft ...
. Ulyanovsk's second vote however, after two candidates dropped out of the race, actually saw "Against All" gain ''more'' support in the polls, now pulling in 21.5% of the vote, nearly double what any of the actual candidates received.[http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/2004/vol8n20/OnlyRussia.shtml]
See also
*None of the above
"None of the above" (NOTA), or none for short, also known as "against all" or a "scratch" vote, is a ballot option in some jurisdictions or organizations, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of the candidates in a voting syst ...
*Brewster's Millions
''Brewster's Millions'' is a comedic novel written by George Barr McCutcheon in 1902, originally under the pseudonym of Richard Greaves.
The plot concerns a young man whose grandfather leaves him $1 million in a will, but a competing will from a ...
, 1985 film in which a millionaire encourages people to vote "None of the Above" for New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
mayor.
External links
Campaign for "None of the Above" on Irish ballots
References
Ballots
Elections