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'DECLINED': HOW TO FORFEIT YOUR BALLOT

HOW TO NOT CHOOSE A PROVINCIAL CANDIDATE

TARA LINDEMANN tlindemann@sachem.ca

If you're disenchanted with candidate options in your local riding this provincial election, there is an option to make your feelings known while still participating in the electoral process — declining your ballot.

SHOW UP AND SAY IT OUT LOUD

When you receive your ballot from an Elections Ontario representative at your polling station, tell them you are forfeiting your right to vote. They'll mark it "declined," and will be counted along with the other ballots.

THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS

You can take your ballot into the voting booth and reject, or spoil, your ballot, by writing outside of the candidate's name or not marking it at all and submitting

it.

DECLINING A BALLOT AND NOT VOTING ARE NOT THE SAME

If you decline your ballot, you are participating in the process and your actions will be noted. If you stay home, your actions will only be noted as part of the turnout number.

DECLINING A BALLOT IS A RIGHT

Section 53 of the Ontario Election Act reads: "An elector who has received a ballot and returns it to the deputy returning officer declining to vote, forfeits the right to vote and the deputy returning officer shall immediately write the word 'declined' upon the back of the ballot and preserve it to be returned to the returning officer and shall cause an entry to be made in the poll record that the elector declined to vote."

HOW OFTEN ARE BALLOTS DECLINED?

In 2011, 2,335 voters declined their ballots. In 2014, the number of people who

declined their vote jumped to 29,937 — a 40-year high. That number dropped a little in 2018, with 22,684 people declining their ballot.

SPOILING AND UNMARKED BALLOTS ARE NOTABLE

In 2011, Elections Ontario recorded 12,892 rejected and 5,208 in unmarked ballots. In 2014, the number of rejected ballots jumped to 22,885, and unmarked ballots to 12,124. Last election, unmarked ballots increased again to 22,910, while the number of rejected ballots fell to 15,832.

PROVINCIAL ELECTION

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2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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