[LMB] OT: Voting was all-purpose open letter

[B. Ross Ashley]

It's still legal to formally refuse one's ballot, here in 
Canada/Ontario, if one wishes to register a protest that won't be 
counted as a spoiled ballot. Of course it is a public act, instead of 
taking place in the privacy of the poll; one says to the poll clerk and 
the Deputy Returning Officer, "I wish to refuse this ballot", and gives 
a reason if one cares to. It is recorded as a refused ballot rather than 
a spoiled one.

In all my years as an NDP activist, watching the polls as a scrutineer 
etc., I've seen it done once, by a Libertarian who had no candidate to 
vote for.

On Tue, 6 Nov 2007 10:53:05 +0000, queenortart <queenortart at gmail.com>
wrote:
 > >
 > >
 > > Interestingly, with the advent of computerised voting it is becoming
 > > almost impossible to register an informal vote - you have to choose
 > > someone on the screen or you can't finish. I guess you could just go
 > > through the motions but not actually touch the screen at all.


 > I am concerned that once computerised voting comes in that they
 > will make it impossible to spoil your ballot paper, which is what
 > I've done for about the last 15 years of elections.



-- 
B. Ross Ashley http://brashley46.livejournal.com 
http://brashley46.no-ip.info
"It would be too painful to think that there are worlds somewhere
where I got everything right."  Sulien, in _The King's Name_, by Jo Walton
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