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Concept
Spoilt vote
Summary
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 deliberately. The total number of spoilt votes in a United States election has been called the residual vote. In Australia, such votes are generally referred to as informal votes, and in Canada they are referred to as rejected votes.
In some jurisdictions spoilt votes are counted and reported.
A ballot may be spoilt in a number of ways, including:
Failing to mark the ballot at all (blank vote), or otherwise defacing the ballot instead of attempting to vote.
Filling out the ballot in a manner that is incompatible with the voting system being used, e.g.:
Marking more choices than permitted (overvoting), or fewer than necessary (undervoting).
Filling a preference ballot out of sequence, e.g. 1-2-2-3-4 or 1-2-4-5-6, 1-4-2-4-5. In most cases, only the first two choices in these examples would be counted as valid.
Adding a write-in candidate when such an option is not permitted. The vote for this candidate would be discarded.
Filling the ballot in a manner that makes the voter's decision unclear.
Physically deforming ballots, especially those counted by machine.
Making marks on the ballot other than those necessary to complete it, from which the voter's identity can be ascertained, compromising the secrecy of the ballot.
As an example, UK law specifically precludes ballots "on which votes are given for more candidates than the voter is entitled to vote for", "on which anything is written or marked by which the voter can be identified" or "which [are] unmarked or void for uncertainty".
If a voter makes a mistake while completing a ballot, it may be possible to cancel it and start the voting process again. In the United States, cancelled physical ballots may be called "spoiled ballots", as distinct from an "invalid vote" which has been cast.
Official source
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