this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
1390 points (93.7% liked)

tumblr

3432 readers
333 users here now

Welcome to /c/tumblr, a place for all your tumblr screenshots and news.

Our Rules:

  1. Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.

  2. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.

  3. Must be tumblr related. This one is kind of a given.

  4. Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.

  5. No unnecessary negativity. Just because you don't like a thing doesn't mean that you need to spend the entire comment section complaining about said thing. Just downvote and move on.

Sister Communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
gedaliyah@lemmy.world
1390
The problem with not voting (fedia.io)
submitted 8 months ago by perishthethought@lemm.ee to c/tumblr@lemmy.world
476 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] otter@lemmy.ca 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'm in Canada, and I think the term used here is 'rejected ballots' or 'declined ballots'

Some links:

The first article is specifically the effect I described, where people report the number of declined ballots, interview people who chose to do that, and talk about why it might be happening. That has an impact, but the magnitude depends on how prolific it is.

Second link quoted:

Ballots must be rejected if they were not supplied by an election officer, were improperly marked (including those voided by the elector), were cast for a person other than a candidate, or if there is any writing or mark by which the elector could be identified.

After the count, the election officer fills out a statement of the vote, recording the number of votes in favour of each candidate and the number of rejected ballots. In this statement, the election officer has to account for all ballots received at that poll.

I'm not as familiar with the US. My point was a blank ballot can have a different outcome from not showing up, and it can be a valid strategy depending on where you are in the world.