McHugh’s Miscellany: Election fever and the ‘Spoiled’ voters 

In recent days I have been required to travel the road to Sligo from south Donegal on a regular basis.

But it struck me just how many election posters festooned the polls and every other structure upon which they could be attached by cable ties that extended across three counties and two provinces.

Apart from being a distraction to drivers, are they just a complete waste of money? 

Well, they do grab your attention, especially as they come in all shapes and sizes.

And with the great growth of greenery over the last couple of weeks, some eerily peaking out at you from the bushes and undergrowth!!

It was strange as I traversed to be met with candidates seeking my vote of whom I had never heard of.

And they were just the candidates running in the European parliament elections in the Midlands-North West constituency! It was true election fever!

One over enthusiastic candidate poster putter-upper had even erected one on the N15 Bundoran Ballyshannon bypass for a candidate seeking a county council seat in Sligo.

This was possibly a Google Maps malfunction or a quick witted election agent with an eye on passing traffic.

It was also interesting to note this week that a campaign was also launched to get the number of spoiled votes reduced at both local and European level.

The Electoral Commission, the same agency that bestows Sligo and Leitrim status to parts of Donegal at the Dáil elections is now embarking on an “education drive” to reduce the propensity of spoiled votes, which amounted to 108,000 last time out in 2019, for the same two elections.

And knowing that information over the past five years, the “drive” takes place or rather begins just 12 days out from the elections.

Yes, a prompt on how to cast a vote now is a timely reminder, but again, if they were that concerned about the situation, it may have been a tad more prudent to “educate” those ‘voters’ over the past half decade available to them, not days before the election.

For in truth, the humble voter is already trying to clear the cobweb of 27 candidate choices that face Donegal voters for Europe, as an example, never mind Donegal County Council contenders. 

For as long as I have been in attendance at election counts, my first while still a student at a European count in Bundoran’s Astoria Ballroom back in 1984, the ‘spoiled vote’ was also used as a protest.

It ranged from someone launching their first attempts at poetry, rewriting the constitution to profanities that summed up the frustration or anger of the voter concerned.

This was not simply marking an X instead of a 1,2,3 or a mark outside the box. 

For many, it is a valid protest, but if I was protesting, I would not bother making an effort to turn up at the polling booth in the first place.  

I am not sure whether the Commission extended the research into what ways the ballots are spoiled, but I simply believe that if you make the effort to get to the polling station, at least make a legitimate mark.

For the uninitiated the Commission states as part of their drive:

“Voters must ensure that you express your preference or preferences on each individual ballot paper beginning with 1 and continuing 2, 3, 4, etc. for as many or as few as you wish. So start with 1 on each ballot paper or else your vote will not be counted.”

If I had the electoral commission budget or authority, I would have been concentrating more on offsetting and educating voters on the propensity of fake political news out there, especially but not confined to online postings and disinformation on just about everything that moves, rather than telling people they should not spoil their votes.

In truth, this time around, it may be all the conflicting election messages that are being dressed up as the truth that may lead to the most spoiled votes, not someone mixing up an X for a 1,2,3.

Whether Spoiled votes or Spoiled voters, this June will be an interesting kaleidoscope of the old and the new