None of the Above?

Our Parliamentary democracy no longer works. It seems as though the major systems of governance, our Executive and Parliament have gone rogue, forgetting who is truly sovereign and who they actually work for. A significant number of people have disengaged from politics at any level, and far too many of our elected representatives operate from a sense of entitlement and unassailability. A malaise has set in, neither side inclined to do anything about this Status Woe.

How can we reverse this situation and bring back accountability and moral leadership? Is it even possible to reform Parliament and our other national institutions to serve the people fairly, justly and democratically? The task is seemingly insurmountable. All is not lost, however. The place to start, surprisingly, is in my opinion at the voting booth. One way we can attempt to correct matters with minimal outlay and organisation is to exploit a simple legal loophole in the electoral voting systems in the UK: they have to count a spoiled ballot . This means that this type of vote matters, if enough of us do it across each constituency.

Currently, elected representatives want disillusioned people to stay at home and not vote at all. They have factored in the disengagement and are depending on people remaining glued to their sofas, desks or beds on election day. Sophisticated polling and computer programmes compiling past voting intentions create surprisingly detailed insights in each constituency, but this modelling makes many assumptions too. And one of these is that there will be no change in the voting habits of the roughly one-third of registered voters who do not vote. Here is the weakness we can exploit. If we can mobilise even a small fraction of these voters then we can wreck the carefully laid plans of the establishment parties and, as I will explain in a moment, steal a march by harnessing this anti-vote into a positive force for change at the constituency level, after the election.

Why is spoiling the ballot the right approach?

Spoiling the ballot paper is a positive way to channel the pent up anger, disaffection and disgust that many people rightly feel about the political system in the UK. It is also legal and anonymous. The problem for those of us who want root and branch reform and a complete clearing out of the corruption is that we don’t have an accurate measure of the degree of disillusionment (and thus support) for a new way of organising our society and therefore a clear and inarguable mandate to act to initiate change from the old to the new.

We need therefore to convert anecdotal knowledge and observations (about the groundswell for change) into a self-evident and measurable mandate. For this to happen, the need (and support) for change has to be obvious to a majority of people (as well as  politicians and media). This is where we co-opt the current voting system and exploit the loophole of spoiling the ballot. If enough people visit the polling station on election day to declare their disenchantment, disgust and disillusionment via a spoiled ballot, then this provides moral legitimacy to act on this ‘mandate’ from the people themselves.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Buckminster Fuller

An electorate in search of a party

This shifts the voting narrative from a party in search of an electorate to an electorate in search of a party. Activating the disenchanted voters and then responding positively to the mandate for change that they have created via the spoiling the ballot activity, can be achieved by setting up a party that may best represent them. This would thereby fulfil Buckminster Fuller’s nostrum for overcoming the status quo and attacking the corrupt elite from their blind spots.

We can effectively run a parallel vote, piggy-backing on the established voting system and delivering a verdict on it through an ‘anti-vote’ – a spoiled ballot paper. We are actually encouraging greater participation in the voting process, in order to undo it. We can now answer the question, “What’s the point of going to the polling station?” We will set up a party to represent you, if enough of you vote for change. And we counter the familiar refrain, “My vote won’t make a difference” by pointing out just how few of those non-voters would be required to make a big difference. 

Reaching out to genuinely Independent candidates

In other words, we harness the spoiled ballot totals (along with any Independent party totals) into a mandate post facto to either: 1. set up a local Independent party to represent this group (and the wider electorate) or 2. augment the existing (and willing) Independent party infrastructure to broaden its appeal to this group. This approach also saves a huge amount of upfront money in marketing and promotion and registration fees for candidates during the election canvassing period, until a mandate provides clear evidence that it will be money well spent.

And who knows, maybe traditional mainstream party supporters may be tempted to spoil their ballot paper too? The Chester by-election in 2022 was an example of Tories staying at home. Promoting the option of allowing them to protest by spoiling their paper (they were unlikely to vote for anyone else) may well have got many hundreds more to the polling station and could have created a genuine upset at the polls if they had spoiled their ballot.

Mark Rendell is a gardener based in North Wales who has a background in community development, project management and training. He is a member of The Great Rising Team and local Stands in the Park.

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