White Ballot in Israel: Symbol of Protest or Wasted Vote?
Translated & summarized from Kan News by baba
A blank white ballot in Israeli elections is often seen as a protest vote but is officially counted as spoiled and does not affect seat distribution. Its original purpose was to allow voting if party ballots ran out. Official figures do not track intentional blank ballots, with about 0.63% of votes spoiled in the last election. While a blank ballot counts towards turnout, it doesn't contribute to any party's mandate, unlike in some other countries where they have official status.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- A blank white ballot in Israel is officially a spoiled vote, not a recognized protest.
- There is no official data on the number of Israelis who intentionally cast blank ballots.
- Blank ballots do not influence Knesset seat distribution or the electoral threshold.
- The original purpose of blank ballots was to substitute for missing printed party ballots.
- In contrast to Israel, some countries like France and Spain count blank ballots separately or as valid votes.
In Israel, a blank white ballot is often perceived as a symbol of protest or distrust in politicians, but legally, it holds no official status. Unlike in some other countries, a blank white ballot in Israel is counted as a spoiled vote and does not influence the distribution of Knesset seats. Furthermore, there is no official mechanism to track how many voters intentionally cast a blank ballot.
The original purpose of a blank ballot was practical: to serve as a substitute if printed ballots for a specific party ran out. Voters could write the party's designation on a blank ballot. However, a blank ballot is only considered valid if a party's designation is correctly written on it; an entirely blank ballot is spoiled.
Official election data does not distinguish between blank spoiled ballots and those invalidated for other reasons. In the November 2022 elections, approximately 0.63% of all votes cast, totaling 29,851, were spoiled. It remains unknown how many of these were intentional blank ballots versus errors.
Casting a blank ballot means participating in the election, as the vote is included in the overall voter turnout calculation, but it does not contribute to any party's seat allocation. This differs from abstaining from voting altogether, which means not participating in the election process and lowers the overall turnout. In contrast, in countries like France, blank ballots are counted separately, and in Spain, they are considered valid votes that can affect the electoral threshold.
Beyond blank ballots, other actions can lead to a vote being spoiled, including using non-standard ballots, marking the ballot or envelope in a way that could identify the voter, including ballots from different parties, or including more than three identical ballots in an envelope.