Originally Posted by
Enoch Mort
During the process of the count, after the total number of votes cast is verified and during the sorting into candidates the doubtful votes are removed and adjudicated on by the person running the count in the presence of the candidates and their agents. The ballot papers adjudged to be spoiled are kept separate and totalled up. The final calculation is total votes for each candidate plus spoiled papers should equal total verified number of votes cast. The reality is, once the spoiled ballot papers have been settled no-one takes a blind bit of notice of them. The totality of spoiled papers is returned in summary form together with the candidates votes to the central govt. department dealing with elections and, in my experience, no big deal is made of them there as they are too busy reviewing the running of the election and any logistical problems that may have occurred. There are categories of spoiled paper and there are some with obscenities or political protests written on them but the largest category of spoiled paper is absence of a mark I.e. completely blank. The one statistic that is taken notice of is the turn out and spoiled papers are included in that calculation so perhaps not turning out to vote is a better form of protest.