What is a valid protest vote?.

baldyman27 said:

I'm of the opinion that writing any protest phrase on the slip is a pointless exercise, no-one will read it, much less take any notice, much less care or bring it to the attention of someone who should care. The only effective protest vote IMHO is for everyone to spoil their vote or for everyone not to vote. That would send a loud and clear message to candidates that none of them evoke confidence in the electorate. Pigs will fly.

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To me, a low vote only tells the politicians we don't give a damm about them and that they can go off and do what they like because we don't care. Instead what is needed is a very high turnout so they actually get the full picture of what the country is thinking

Mpsox said:

To me, a low vote only tells the politicians we don't give a damm about them and that they can go off and do what they like because we don't care. Instead what is needed is a very high turnout so they actually get the full picture of what the country is thinking

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I agree that would be the best solution. Spoiling your vote is basically opting out of making any decision and leaving it up to everyone else to make the tough choice.

Hasn't the Fianna Fail vote of the last 80 years effectively been an anti-treaty protest vote? I didn't seem to do them any harm.

Organised protest votes have a habit of coalescing if the issue resonates with enough people.

Mpsox said:

To me, a low vote only tells the politicians we don't give a damm about them and that they can go off and do what they like because we don't care. Instead what is needed is a very high turnout so they actually get the full picture of what the country is thinking

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I didn't advocate a low vote, I said that everyone not voting would be a significant protest. Which pretty much means that there is no effective protest vote.

Failing to vote, or spoiling your vote, has no useful consequence.

Somebody will be elected. It is possible that your vote might have caused somebody else to be elected, somebody who in your judgement is less awful that the other candidates.

I believe that people who spoil their vote are wasting their own time.

If they really want to protest they should take the least dis-likable politician the so on so forth, or go with mainly independents, but the main thing to do is use up all the votes you have from 1 to 10.

I'm very angry with the govt so I'm going to vote for the bunch that FF least like.

The Greens won't be getting anything out of me, they always did before.

I think they are in for a hammering.