Example Papers

To give yourself the best chance of your ballot paper being counted as an 'invalid vote', you must ensure that it is marked in the correct way. The safest way to spoil your paper is illustrated in the next image. The diagonal line extends beyond the outside box at both ends.

One option is to use a diagonal line and no writing, as shown in the next image.

Common sense says that the above ballot paper should be counted as spoilt. However, could the regime argue that the line is a pointer, pointing to Candidate A or Candidate G? Let's not given them any wriggle room here. To avoid this, extend the line beyond the outside box at both ends, as shown in the next example.

Leaving the ballot paper blank is risky in that, if there are blemishes on the paper (from the printing, handling etc), those blemishes could be interpreted as markings made by the person casting the ballot paper.

The next example shows one large cross, covering all candidates. Common sense says that this should be  interpreted as "none of them". But this might be counted as a vote for the candidate located where the two lines intersect. In the example, this would be Candidate D.

A smaller cross would give even more of an excuse to count the markings as a vote, as illustrated in the next image.

In the next example, it may seem that this ballot paper could surely not be counted as a vote for one of the candidates.

However, if all but one of the crosses have a similar size, then the markings might be interpreted as a vote for the candidate whose name appears next to the differently sized cross. The markings below may be interpreted as a vote for Candidate B.

What about writing the name of this movement on the ballot paper? This is risky because, at the time of the election, one of the candidates might be affiliated with a party that is similar to the name of this movement. Indeed, for the 2024 UK general election, there was a party named 'Reform UK'. Even if one were to write 'REFORMUK.ORG' across all candidates, this might still be interpreted as a vote for a candidate.

An image drawn across the whole ballot paper should, in theory, be counted as a spoilt paper. However, the location of the image could be used to interpret the markings as a vote. The smaller the image, the higher the risk of this. The most obvious example of this would be to draw something in one of the candidate boxes, as illustrated below. These markings would likely be counted as a vote for Candidate E.

Conclusion

If you want your ballot paper to be counted as an 'invalid vote', it is essential that your markings are unambiguous. The safest option to use is that illustrated in the first example: one diagonal line extending beyond the candidate boxes, and with the diagonal words 'SPOILT' and 'PAPER'. If you would prefer not to write, the next best option is to drop the words and keep the line, as shown in the third example down from the top of this page.