spoiled ballot

[mikefrank]

Is an unmarked ballot paper classed as a spoiled vote under UK Electoral Law?

[dafyd]

Yes. It is someone who has clearly attempted to vote but has done so incorrectly, therefore it is a spoiled ballot.

[bernardo]

Yes.  The official notice of the result of an election gives totals of four types of spoilt votes:

1. unmarked or void for uncertainty
2. voting for more candidates than allowed
3. markings by which the voter can be identified
4. without the official mark

Number 1 would include those which have been deliberately left blank, or where there is doubt about what the voter meant, or where the voter has written stuff on the paper without voting for anybody.

Number 3 is usually stupid people who think that they have to vote by putting their signature instead of an X.  A valid vote is any vote where the intention of the voter is clear, as long as the voter has not identified him/herself; a tick or circle or smiley face would be equally acceptable, although most people just put an X.

Number 4 means that the ballot paper does not have a pattern of perforated holes in the corner.  This is done when each ballot paper is issued, as a security measure to show that the ballot paper has been issued by the staff correctly in the polling station.  The theory is that a ballot paper without this mark might be a forgery which someone has brought into the polling station by fraudulent means.  Occasionally the staff in a polling station forget to perforate the paper with the official mark.  There were a few ballot papers without the official mark in the General Election in Winchester in 1997 (the winner had a majority of 2 votes), and this was one of the reasons why the result was declared null and void.

[mikefrank]

Thanks for the answers.