What happens if I vote blank

Electoral systems are often complicated to understand and somewhat illogical, depending on the country the electoral laws are different, so we bring you this article to explain some concepts of the Spanish electoral law.

What does the null vote mean? What happens if I abstain? Where do I have to vote? o What happens if I vote blank? These are some of the most frequent questions that come to our mind every time elections are approaching. Voting is something very important, so many people have fought and left their lives, for that reason, doing it knowing what is done and with all the conviction is a moral duty we have for all those who have suffered to bequeath us the democracy.

In the following .com article we will explain what happens if I vote blank, reviewing the different options you have when going to vote and explaining who benefits each thing.

How many types of votes are there

Although not all are included in the electoral law, the ways to go -or not to vote- are different. When facing an election, each citizen can choose a wide variety of actions depending on their way of thinking and ideology. Here we explain them:

• Vote for a party is what is traditionally understood by voting, exercising your right to vote by supporting a political party of those who stand in the elections, introducing your ballot in the envelope and this in the urn that corresponds to you. At the end of the day there is a recount of the votes that each party has obtained to distribute the seats.
• The null vote is an invalid vote that has no effect on the final election, since it is not counted as a vote. Anyone who suffers some type of defect or alteration with respect to what is a normal vote is considered a null vote. By alterations we understand broken, painted, crossed or drawn votes, two ballots in the same envelope or anything else in the envelope that is not the single-party ballot.
• The abstention is not really a vote, but quite the opposite, it is the right not to exercise the right to vote, not presenting yourself to the polls to vote. Although in some countries this is prohibited when voting is mandatory, in Spain it is a right that, according to how, is interpreted as a political option. As a result of this has born what is called active abstention, ie a conscious abstention, which symbolizes the non-belief in the system and that moves away from abstention due to ignorance or laziness.
• The blank vote is when the voter introduces an empty envelope into the box, with nothing. Unlike the null vote, although they are not counted for any particular party, they are taken into account when calculating the votes cast. What many people ask is what happens if I vote blank? That's why we'll explain it to you in detail below.

What happens if I vote blank

As we have just explained, a blank vote is considered when the person shows up at the polling station - or votes through the mail - and puts an envelope in the box where there is no party ballot or any other object or paper that could make it null.

Nominally the blank vote has an intention and meaning of its own, it is understood that the blank vote is an active protest of the citizens, a kind of conscious abstention that makes an effort to make clear their disinterest or discontent with the political class . In spite of this, the Spanish electoral law does not describe the function or meaning of the blank vote, so people can exercise it with a different will than this one. Some people also use the blank vote as a wild card, as an acceptance of the results come out who leaves.

In the following article we explain in detail how to differentiate the null vote from the blank vote.

Who benefits blank vote

Unlike the null votes, the votes in targets do take into account in the electoral count, therefore, they affect the final results . There is a widespread myth that says blank votes are added to the winning party, when in fact it is not, then we will explain what happens to them and who benefits the blank vote .

In the Spanish general elections a minimum of 3% of the total votes cast is needed to be able to have representation, this means that in the hypothetical case that in a constituency there are 100 votes cast, a party needs to draw at least 3 in order to have representation.

In this way, it is understood that the blank vote favors large parties, those that exceed the minimum percentage without problems and will harm small formations, which may have difficulties to pass that limit, but why? Because, by counting as a valid vote, it will raise the number of votes necessary to be elected.

Making it easier to understand; if there are 100 votes cast, a party needs at least to draw 3-surpass 3% - in order to be elected. If finally only the 50 people who know exactly what party wants to vote vote will only need 1.5 votes, but if the remaining 50 chose to vote in blank, as these also count for the total number of votes, there would be 100 votes cast, It was necessary for minority parties to take 3 votes.

Thus, we can say that it indirectly benefits the majority parties while it makes it difficult for small parties to make room for themselves and change things.