Spoilt vote

Spoilt ballot paper from the 2016 Kazakh legislative election reading "Бойкот Выборам" which means *Boycott the elections.*

Spoilt ballot paper from the 2021 UK Police and Crime Commissioner Elections

Balloting

Ballots
Absentee ballot Provisional ballot Sample ballot
Candidates and Ballot measures
Write-in candidate Electorate Slate Ticket
Collection
Ballot box Compulsory voting Early voting Electronic voting Open ballot Polling place Postal voting Precinct Vote center Voting booth
Counting
Popular vote Tally Voting machine

Electoral systems

Winner-take-all systems
First-past-the-post voting Two-round system Instant-runoff voting Plurality-at-large voting General ticket Usual judgment
Proportional and semi-proportional systems
Single non-transferable vote Cumulative voting Binomial system Party-list Single transferable voting Spare vote
Mixed-member systems
Mixed-member proportional Mixed-member majoritarian Additional member system Mixed single vote (positive vote transfer) Scorporo (negative vote transfer) Mixed ballot transferable vote Alternative Vote Plus Dual-member proportional Rural–urban proportional Majority bonus system Parallel voting

Voting strategies

Protest votes
Issue voting Fusion voting Public opinion Split-ticket voting Lesser-evil voting Straight-ticket voting Tactical voting Vote pairing
Abstention Donkey vote Election boycott None of the above Refused ballot Spoilt vote

Electoral fraud and prevention

Prevention
Ballot harvesting Ballot stuffing Carousel voting Family voting Voter intimidation Vote buying Voter suppression Voter caging
Biometric voter registration Election ink Secret ballot Voter identification laws Voter invitation card Voter registration End-to-end verifiable voting

In voting, a ballot is not included in the vote count if a law declares or an election authority determines that it is spoilt (chiefly British), spoiled (chiefly American), void, null, informal, invalid, rejected or stray. This may occur accidentally or deliberately.

The total number of spoilt votes in a United States election has been called the residual vote.

In some jurisdictions, spoilt votes are counted and reported.