Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Sending a message with your vote on Thursday
If you are having to vote with a peg on your nose or even not vote because you do not feel represented enough and it's a foregone conclusion... there is still something that you can do about it...
Having watched the count of Harringay in 2010 in Alexandra Palace I noticed some interesting things. The candidates are always there, or a representative of them, to keep an eye on things. If the vote is along party lines, e.g. all votes for The Liberal Democrats, then it is quickly counted and put in a pile as "3 votes for X". If the vote is split between parties then it is more carefully allocated on a tally sheet and put in a different pile. If the vote is unclear, e.g. everyone is crossed out except for three candidates, then the tally clerk will show it to the candidates and ask them to agree that it's a vote for the people not crossed out, in that case.
So what you "could" do, is do something to your paper that could REASONABLY be construed as a valid vote and then the candidates have to look at it. I doubt they'll be shown any with profanities on but if you have a simple message about your reluctance to vote, that could be a way to get it seen.
You do run the risk of your vote not being counted at all, but if this helps get some people down to vote who really don't see a party for them because of a single issue, then it's worth me posting this, IMHO.
Tags for Forum Posts: election2022, elections, voting
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brian Mahoney on
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People sometimes think they are sending a message to someone (i don't know who) by either not voting or turning up to vote and spoiling the ballot paper.
It should be clear that this is not the case.
If you don't vote, all you do is reduce the voting pool by one. The party with the most votes still wins. It makes no difference if you don't vote (low turnout does not reduce the validity of the election).
The only difference you can make is to vote for the least offensive candidate (based on local issues which local councillor can influence, not national or international ones over which they have no influence whatever).
Spoiling a vote at the ballot box is a waste of time for the same reasons as not voting at all. Candidates/parties do not care one bit if you write 'none of the above' for instance. All they care about is that they receive more votes than the other parties.
And remember, the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. So vote for anyone on the ballot paper except Labour.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Both of you, I am trying to address the people who don't vote "for reasons", more specifically, "a reason". Perhaps someone might want to vote Labour and write down the dictionary definition for a woman. Split your vote, at the very least, and your message will be seen as your vote is counted.
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That's a bit risky John. There's a strong chance that your vote will simply be discarded.
It would be more effective to just contact your councillor and say you're not voting Labour because:
- they ignored residents views and went ahead and renamed Black Boy Lane (what else will they ignore our views on?)
- they wasted all those millions on inept property deals
- the iffy dealings with the houses in Muswell Hill
- poor quality council services
- relentless factionalism
- etc, etc
You could take your pick from these or many other reasons.
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The Labour Party in Haringey is essentially two large factions. The issues you bring up, apart from the factionalism, are all down to one faction.
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But the Party won't say who is part of the Momentum faction so a vote for Labour is actually a vote for Momentum. Thus my intention to vote for anyway except Labor. Its the only way to get rid of them. I'll then consider voting for Labour again once the party has demonstrated that it has removed the extremists, lazy and incompetents.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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It doesn’t work like that John. I used to do the count in the eighties and nineties. If I saw an unclear or or spoiled ballot it would go into a pile. The count supervisor would look them over with the election agents looking on. No one read what was written. All they were interested in was whether it could be legitimately counted or not.
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As I said, I watched in 2010, so my information is slightly more up to date. Maybe it depends on the count supervisor, which is a bit iffy.
I know they're interested in wether it could be counted or not but if enough people who vote Labour write "trans women are men", I imagine candidates will remember.
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I doubt that will have an impact on bin collections
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