As the United Kingdom votes in the general election on Thursday (July 4), there are several people who are going to express their displeasure with the system in a very peculiar manner - by spoiling their ballot paper. The last general elections saw more than 100,000 people damaging their ballot papers. This is mostly because they either do not support the party or candidate standing from their area, or they are just not in favour of anyone overall.

In India, we have the system of NOTA (None of the above), wherein a person who doesn't want to vote for anyone can choose this option. These votes are also counted which is a way to tell the politicians that something needs to be fixed at their end. Something similar is going on here as well, only that people in the UK spoil their ballot in some way or the other.

The question then arises, why go to the polling booth at all if they are not going to vote for anyone? Simply not turning up to vote should be enough. Several people even give the postal ballot a miss. However, campaigners argue that it is important to clearly show the anger and frustration one might have with a politician or a party. So they say that one should go to cast their vote but instead, should spoil the ballot paper.

Voting Counts, an organisation working to get young adults to engage in political discourse, says spoiling a vote is more noticeable than simply not voting. This way politicians get the message that people are dissatisfied and they need to do something to engage such voters. 

By spoiling your vote "you become a voice for the disengaged", the organisation told SKY News. 

Notably, the spoilt votes are not simply discarded but are counted and recorded. "Your apathy towards the political parties will be heard not just forgotten", the organisation says.

How are the ballots spoilt?

There are several ways people go about it. Some choose multiple candidates, others put a big cross on the entire ballot paper while a few simply leave it blank. Then there are those who go on a rant on the paper against party or a candidate, while some draw explicit images. 

What happens to the spoilt ballot papers?

All votes that appear to have been spoilt are placed in a pile and they are supposed to be counted simultaneously with the valid votes. Votes that aren't legible to the person counting the votes also go in this pile. While being counted, once it is clear that the voter deliberately spoilt the paper, or has chosen to go against the rules, then the vote is declared invalid. Objections can be raised by those at the venue on behalf of the candidates. 

In the last general elections in the UK in 2019, 0.36% of votes were invalid, that is a total of 117,101 ballot papers.

When a penis picture was counted as a vote

In the 2015 general election, a voted drew a picture of a penis next to Conservative MP Glyn Davies's boz. Surprisingly, it was counted as a valid vote.

Davies wrote on his Facebook page, "One voter decided to draw a detailed representation of a penis instead of a cross in my box on one ballot paper. Amazingly, because it was neatly drawn within the confines of the box the returning officer deemed it a valid vote.

"I'm not sure the artist meant it to count, but I am grateful. If I knew who it was, I would like to thank him (or her) personally."