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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/nov/05/police-and-crime-commissioners-police-spoilt-ballot-paper-north-yorkshire
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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Spoiling your ballot: the third way | Spoiling your ballot: the third way |
| (8 days later) | |
| Janice Gwilliam is a retired London schoolteacher who now lives in North Yorkshire and works as a volunteer for asylum charities in Leeds, Fairtrade in Malton and York and clearing footpaths for the Coasties scheme run by the North York Moors national park. | Janice Gwilliam is a retired London schoolteacher who now lives in North Yorkshire and works as a volunteer for asylum charities in Leeds, Fairtrade in Malton and York and clearing footpaths for the Coasties scheme run by the North York Moors national park. |
| She has always voted before but, faced with the PCC elections this month, she felt that she simply could not. Above is a copy of what she did, faced with North Yorkshire's only two candidates, which she has also posted on her Mysmallsociety blog. Like some commentors to threads on previous Northerner posts about the elections - and like Liberals without a candidate in the party's 1950s nadir - she has used her right to 'spoil' the ballot but not waste it. She is making a political point, like this Canadian political movement earlier this year. | She has always voted before but, faced with the PCC elections this month, she felt that she simply could not. Above is a copy of what she did, faced with North Yorkshire's only two candidates, which she has also posted on her Mysmallsociety blog. Like some commentors to threads on previous Northerner posts about the elections - and like Liberals without a candidate in the party's 1950s nadir - she has used her right to 'spoil' the ballot but not waste it. She is making a political point, like this Canadian political movement earlier this year. |
| Here's what she says in addition: | Here's what she says in addition: |
| Why have I done this? Good question. | Why have I done this? Good question. |
| Firstly I am a rather impulsive person: act first, then think, and this seemed to me the best thing to do on first thought. | Firstly I am a rather impulsive person: act first, then think, and this seemed to me the best thing to do on first thought. |
| However, second and subsequent thoughts made no difference. I have never and could never vote for a Conservative; their entire value system is so different to mine. | However, second and subsequent thoughts made no difference. I have never and could never vote for a Conservative; their entire value system is so different to mine. |
| I have voted Labour, but their record in Government on penal reform and the criminal justice system was not very liberal to say the least. | I have voted Labour, but their record in Government on penal reform and the criminal justice system was not very liberal to say the least. |
| I have always voted, but this time neither of them could be described even as 'least worst', so this is a public gesture on my part. | I have always voted, but this time neither of them could be described even as 'least worst', so this is a public gesture on my part. |
| Small acorns... | Small acorns... |
| Why so few candidates, too? I guess that a £5000 deposit is a bit of a turn-off, as must be the general public apathy and lack of understanding of what it's all about. | Why so few candidates, too? I guess that a £5000 deposit is a bit of a turn-off, as must be the general public apathy and lack of understanding of what it's all about. |
| North Yorkshire is one of five northern police areas where local people might be thought to have particular reasons for getting involved (including by ballot-spoiling). You can read a Northerner post on that here. To read others, start here. | North Yorkshire is one of five northern police areas where local people might be thought to have particular reasons for getting involved (including by ballot-spoiling). You can read a Northerner post on that here. To read others, start here. |
| Janice Gwilliam blogs monthly for the Northerner on her volunteering experiences and views. | Janice Gwilliam blogs monthly for the Northerner on her volunteering experiences and views. |
| What do you think? Is spoiling your paper in the PCC elections a better alternative to boycotting the vote altogether? | What do you think? Is spoiling your paper in the PCC elections a better alternative to boycotting the vote altogether? |
| A Northerner post with a full list of candidates in our three regions is here. | A Northerner post with a full list of candidates in our three regions is here. |
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