A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or "none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms and reflects numerous voter motivations, including political apathy. Where voting is compulsory, casting a blank vote is available for those who do not wish to choose a candidate, or to protest. Unlike abstention elsewhere, blank votes are counted.
Along with abstention, or not voting, protest voting is a sign of unhappiness with available options. If protest vote takes the form of a blank vote, it may or may not be tallied into final results. Protest votes may be considered spoiled or, depending on the electoral system, counted as "none of the above" votes.
Types of protest vote
Protest votes can take many different forms:
Blank ballots
Null ballots
Spoiled ballots
None of the above votes
Votes for a fringe candidate or party, or a less preferred candidate or party
Organized protest votes
Declined ballots
Protest voting tends to occur among voters who feel alienated but who have an alternative voting option, such as a third-party candidate in the United States, or who can register their displeasure with the political process by reducing the majority status of a likely winner. Alienation often leads to abstention from voting, but can also generate participation in the form of a protest vote. In the 1992 United States presidential election, for example, 14% of those who voted for Ross Perot said they would not have voted at all if he had not run.
Protest votes can take the form of blank, null, or spoiled ballots. Blank ballots are ballots with no markings on them. Null ballots are ballots that do not result in a valid vote because the ballot was filled out incompletely or incorrectly. Spoiled ballots are ballots that have been defaced, crossed-out, or otherwise marked in a way that makes the ballot ineligible; spoiled ballots most clearly indicate the presence of a protest vote. Write-in votes may also indicate protest voting; in the United States Mickey Mouse has historically been a popular choice.
Declined ballots occur where a voter shows up to the polling place, and declines to vote. This is an option in multiple Canadian provinces, including Ontario. However, this option does not exist in federal elections. To decline a ballot, one may return the ballot to the poll worker while stating that they decline to vote.
None of the above (NOTA) voting is rarely an option in U.S. politics, although it has been an option on Nevada ballots since 1976. NOTA voting is proposed as a state-legitimized method of allowing voters to signal discontent, although selecting a "none" option does not always indicate protest.
Other types of protest voting relate more to the choice of candidate or party selected for a valid vote than the ballot itself. Voting for a fringe candidate or less preferred party can be a way of signaling dissatisfaction with a leading candidate, party, or policy, or of reducing the margin of victory of the likely winner.
Protest voting organized by political parties or leaders also occurs, but tends to be rare and associated with extreme circumstances.
Determining the presence of a protest vote
Distinguishing between ballots that have been deliberately cast as protest votes and those that are blank, null, or spoiled by an individual trying but failing to cast a valid vote is challenging. Blank votes are often associated with protest voting, but can also be indicators of a lack of information. Votes are blank, null, and spoiled more frequently in areas with high levels of illiteracy or limited language competency. Spoiled ballots, especially those that have been deliberately defaced or otherwise ruined, are a more reliable indicator of protest votes and of political sophistication.
Significant protest vote events
One United States court case determined that voting is not an issue of free speech or expression, but rather about electing officials; in Burdick v. Takushi, 1992, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on write-in votes after Alan B. Burdick argued that Hawaii should be required to count his protest vote for Donald Duck.
In the parliamentary elections in Finland and Sweden, voters have also used Donald Duck as a protest vote. In Ukraine, the Internet Party nominated Darth Vader for mayoral elections in Kyiv and Odesa, and tried to nominate Darth Vader for presidency, although this application was rejected.