In voting, a ballot paper is considered to be spoilt, void, or null if it is regarded by the election authorities to contain irregularities during vote counting, and hence cannot be recorded as a valid vote. It may range from voting for more than one candidate in a plurality voting system, leaving the vote blank (depending on system), to even defacing the ballot in a manner that makes it uncountable. It has been suggested that ballot be merged into this article or section. ... A voting system is a process that allows a group of individuals to choose between a number of options, and determines the preferred or winning option based on the number of votes each option receives. ... A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. ... There exist various methods through which the ballots cast at an election may be counted, prior to applying a voting system to obtain one or more winners. ... The Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) or Alternative Vote Top-up is a voting system intended for use in elections to an assembly or legislature. ... On an approval ballot, the voter can vote for any number of candidates. ... The Borda count is a single winner election method in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. ... Bucklin is a voting system that can be used for single-member districts and also multi-member districts. ... Closed list describes the variant of party_list proportional representation where voters can (effectively) only vote for political parties as a whole and thus have no influence on the (party-supplied) order in which party candidates are elected. ... Any election method conforming to the Condorcet criterion is known as a Condorcet method. ... The Coombs method, created by Clyde Coombs, is a voting system used for single-winner elections in which each voter rank-orders the candidates. ... Copelands method is a Condorcet method in which the winner is determined by finding the candidate with the most pairwise victories. ... A points method ballot design like this one is the most common for governmental elections using cumulative voting. ... Real life example of DHondt method; vote and seat distribution in Finnish parliamentary election, 2003. ... The Droop quota is the quota most commonly used in elections held under the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system. ... In party-list proportional representation systems, an election threshold is a clause that stipulates that a party must receive a minimum percentage of votes, either nationally or within a particular district, to get any seats in the parliament. ... The Hamilton method is a version of the largest remainder method for allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. ... The highest averages method is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. ... Instant-runoff voting (IRV) (also known as the Alternative Vote and by several other names) is an electoral system used for single winner elections in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. ... The largest remainder method is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. ... A how-to-vote card from the Australian federal election of 2004, showing voters how to fill in the squares on the ballot paper if they wish to vote for the Liberal Party of Australia and allocate preferences according to the Partys recommendations. ... Proportional approval voting (PAV) is a theoretical voting system for multiple-winner elections, in which each voter can vote for as many or as few candidates as the voter chooses. ... Range voting (also called ratings summation, or average voting, or cardinal ratings, or 0-99 voting, or the score system or point system) is a voting system used for single-seat elections. ... The Sainte-Laguë method of the highest average (sometimes identified with Websters method or divisor method with standard rounding) is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. ... The Schulze method is a voting system developed in 1997 by Markus Schulze that selects a single winner using votes that express preferences. ... It has been suggested that ballot be merged into this article or section. ... An election is a decision making process whereby people vote for preferred political candidates or parties to act as representatives in government. ... There exist various methods through which the ballots cast at an election may be counted, prior to applying a voting system to obtain one or more winners. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Plurality. ... None of the Above (NOTA) is a ballot choice in some jurisdictions or organizations, placed so as to allow the voter to indicate his disapproval with all of the candidates in any voting system. ...

Spoilt votes may the result of a deliberate or accidental act by the voter - few of the many possible circumstances being a lack of education on voting procedures, a protest vote, revealation of identity in a secret ballot. For the Finno-Ugric people, see Votes. ... A Protest vote is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the casters unhappiness with the choice of candidates or the current political system. ... The Polling by William Hogarth (1755); Before the secret ballot was introduced voter intimidation was commonplace Wikisource has original text related to this article: A History of the Australian Ballot System in the United States The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voters choices are confidential. ...

Paper-based voting systems are more commonly susceptible to having spoiled ballots, though some paper-based voting systems and most DRE voting machines can notify voters of undervotes and overvotes. A voting machine is a device to record and register votes to be counted as per any voting system, with or without printing a ballot for the voter to verify. ... Direct recording voting machine developed and used in 100% of Brazilian elections A direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machine records votes by means of a ballot display provided with mechanical or electro-optical components that can be activated by the voter; that processes data by means of a computer program...

The validity of the election may be undermined, or questioned if there is an unusually high proportion of spoilt votes.