Editing Protest vote (section)

== Types of protest vote ==

Protest votes can take many different forms:

* Blank ballots
* Null ballots
* Spoiled ballots
* None of the above votes
* Votes for a fringe candidate or party, or a less preferred candidate or party
* Organized protest votes
* Declined ballots

Protest voting tends to occur among voters who feel alienated but who have an alternative voting option, such as a [[Third party (United States)|third-party]] candidate in the United States, or who can register their displeasure with the political process by reducing the majority status of a likely winner.<ref name=":0" /> Alienation often leads to abstention from voting, but can also generate participation in the form of a protest vote. In the [[1992 United States presidential election]], for example, 14% of those who voted for [[Ross Perot]] said they would not have voted at all if he had not run.<ref name=":0" />

Protest votes can take the form of blank, null, or spoiled ballots. Blank ballots are ballots with no markings on them. Null ballots are ballots that do not result in a valid vote because the ballot was filled out incompletely or incorrectly.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1=Hill|first1=Lisa|last2=Young|first2=Sally|date=September 2007|title=Protest or Error? Informal Voting and Compulsory Voting|journal=Australian Journal of Political Science|volume=42|issue=3|pages=515–521|doi=10.1080/10361140701513646| s2cid=153913830 }}</ref> Spoiled ballots are ballots that have been defaced, crossed-out, or otherwise marked in a way that makes the ballot ineligible; spoiled ballots most clearly indicate the presence of a protest vote.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last1=Driscoll|first1=Amanda|last2=Nelson|first2=Michael J.|date=September 2014|title=Ignorance or Opposition? Blank and Spoiled Votes in Low-Information, Highly Politicized Environments|journal=Political Research Quarterly|volume=67|issue=3|pages=547–561|jstor=24371891|doi=10.1177/1065912914524634| s2cid=145215626 }}</ref> Write-in votes may also indicate protest voting; in the United States [[Mickey Mouse#Use in politics|Mickey Mouse]] has historically been a popular choice.

Declined ballots occur where a voter shows up to the polling place, and declines to vote. This is an option in multiple Canadian provinces, including [[Ontario]]. However, this option does not exist in federal elections. To decline a ballot, one may return the ballot to the poll worker while stating that they decline to vote.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/declining-your-ballot-not-in-the-next-federal-election|title= Declining your ballot? Not in the next federal election|first=Jordan|last=press|date=24 June 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elections.on.ca/en/voting-in-ontario/frequently-asked-questions.html|title=Frequently asked questions}}</ref>

None of the above (NOTA) voting is rarely an option in U.S. politics, although it has been an option on Nevada ballots since 1976.<ref name=":2" /> NOTA voting is proposed as a state-legitimized method of allowing voters to signal discontent, although selecting a "none" option does not always indicate protest.<ref name=":2" />

Other types of protest voting relate more to the choice of candidate or party selected for a valid vote than the ballot itself. Voting for a [[minor party|fringe candidate]] or less preferred party can be a way of signaling dissatisfaction with a leading candidate, party, or policy, or of reducing the margin of victory of the likely winner.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Myatt|first=David|date=September 2015|title=A Theory of Protest Voting|journal=The Economic Journal|volume=127|issue=603|pages=1527–1567|doi=10.1111/ecoj.12333| s2cid=12835208 }}</ref>

Protest voting organized by political parties or leaders also occurs, but tends to be rare and associated with extreme circumstances.<ref name=":1" />