Julie Kirkbride
Back in the summer of 1997, when Labour swept the Torys off the political map with their D:Ream themesong and promises of awesomeness and free sex and money for all (or whatever was in their manifesto - I forget), I was 17 and had scored myself a job as one of the vote counting staff in the Bromsgrove ward at the General Election.

The job was pretty awesome if you didn't mind the 3am finish - first of all the pay was ace (£30 for the first 2 hours then £9ph after, plus expenses), secondly it was an absolute hoot to see some of the spoilt ballot papers that have some very offensive statements written on, or had been signed in blood in one case! (bit of a tip - the candidates NEVER SEE the ballot forms that have been spoilt, they just get rejected by the counting official, so don't waste your time spoiling your paper, just don't vote). Finally the MP's daughters were almost always impossibly sexy, so it was a good oggle fest as they walked around. Good times.

The results were in and Bromsgrove had bucked the national trend and elected a Conservative MP - Julie Kirkbride (the woman who put her mortgage on second home, while her MP husband did the same for their other place so neither had a first home!). A tiny spot of blue in an otherwise totally red political landscape.

Of course the TV people were straight onto this one and the Beeb news crew hastily erected their cameras to give an exclusive televised interview, whilst the Labour MPs looked on in dismay (if they couldn't win a seat in 1997 then they had no chance!) Soon they went live to the country, interviewing Ms Kirkbride as she hastily came to terms with her improbable victory.

With me, sat in the background, cross-eyed and gurning as hard as I could, pretending to pull my eye out, eat it then pop it back in.

On national TV.
( h3donist tryin' to play me out as if my name is Sega.., Mon 15 Jun 2009, 1:19, 3 replies)

they do now!
I was at the Euro count in the NIA in Birmingham a week ago last Sunday - and it's changed a bit: the candidates DO get to see the rejected ballots... - I have got to say at this point that even if there is no one on the ballot you really want to vote FOR then there is almost always someone you want to vote AGAINST - like those BNP fuck-cunt-twat-wankers.
(brumguvnor www.twitter.com/brumguvnor, Mon 15 Jun 2009, 8:46, closed)

Oh I forgot that
Yes they do see the ballot forms but the adjudicator has the say if they are spoilt or not, so it's still a waste of time. I'm all for the "protest vote" to stop the BNP etc but to travel all the way to the polling booth simply just to ruin the form seems silly. They'd be better off putting their specific frustrations into a properly worded letter and posting it to the candidate
( h3donist tryin' to play me out as if my name is Sega.., Mon 15 Jun 2009, 9:45, closed)

Not at all
...spoiled votes are still counted.

It's a 'none of the above' vote, and still sends a message to all the candidates.

Imagine if 60% of people spoiled their votes? That message would be pretty clear to all, I would think.

Not voting wouldn't do the same as they convince themselves of a variety of reasons for why people didn't turn out.
(dchurch bah, Mon 15 Jun 2009, 14:11, closed)