How to differentiate the blank vote from the null vote

At the time of your vote, you have three options: make it valid, blank or null . The last two are usually used to express the discontent towards the system or the political parties of the moment. In principle, in a degree of less to more discontent, the null vote would be the one that implies less support to the presented alternatives, since sometimes slogans are used or protests are written on the ballots. We explain more differences below.

one

The blank vote occurs when there is no ballot inside the envelope or the ballot with the candidate list has no chosen option. Many people vote in blank as a measure of demand, because they do not agree with the candidacies that are presented or with the attitude of a certain system.

two

The null vote is that vote that is not valid and is not counted. It is considered null when more than one ballot appears on the envelope or there are more options marked than they should have been indicated. The ballots will not be counted other than those that are placed on the counters, in different envelopes or the ballots that are manipulated in some way. way.

3

There are some small differences in the accounting and the meaning of the blank vote and the null vote when the vote count is being done. So, look at the method your country uses to distribute the seats (in Spain it is the d'Hondt method) and choose your option to achieve the result you were looking for!

• You can research and compare different electoral periods to see what reading has been done at the media and analytical level of null and blank votes at different times.