Protest votes

A protest vote (also known as a blank vote or white vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the voter's dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or refusal of the current political system. In this latter case, protest vote may take the form of a valid vote, but instead of voting for the mainstream candidates, it is a vote in favor of a minority or fringe candidate, either from the far-left, far-right or self-presenting as a candidate foreign to the political system.

Along with abstention, which is simply the act of not voting, it is often considered to be a clear sign of the lack of popular legitimacy and roots of representative democracy, as depressed voter turnout endangers the credibility of the whole voting system. If protest vote takes the form of a blank vote, it may or may not be tallied into final results depending on the rules. Thus, it may either result in a spoilt vote (which is the case most of the time) or, if the electoral system accepts to take it into account, as a "None of the Above" vote.

Protest vote can take different forms:

Interpretations to each of the methods mentioned above vary.

Sometimes, a person may use even more uncommon, often illegal, methods to protest vote. Examples include physical destruction of the ballot (for example, ripping the ballot apart or eating it), asking other people to vote for them, or selling their ballot (for example, putting their vote on auction sites).

Abstention may be considered as a form of protest vote, when it is not assimilable to simple apathy or indifference towards politics in general. Henceforth, the anarchist movement which has since its origins rejected representative democracy in favor of a more direct form of government, traditionally calls for abstention in an active and protest gesture. In states where voting is compulsory, abstention may be seen as an act of political disappointment.

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