Political protest: How to vote for ‘none of the above’

Voters who don’t like any candidates in the upcoming Ontario general election can opt to pick “none of the above” by declining their ballot, effectively registering an official protest.

Declined ballots are collected separately, then counted and included in the total votes cast in each riding.

“That’s someone who really wants to make a statement,” said Barry Kay, associate professor of political science at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Here’s something else you might not know about the provincial election — you aren’t allowed to snap a selfie of yourself posing with your ballot before dropping it in the box.

To decline a ballot at the polling station, a person needs to tell the election official that they are declining the right to vote when handed a ballot. This is a public process and done out loud, making it different than an unmarked or rejected ballot. The official will mark “declined” on the election documentation and the ballot will not go in the ballot box but in an envelope for declined ballots.

Almost 30,000 votes were declined in the last general election in 2014, according to Elections Ontario statistics. That’s far and away above the previous 10 elections dating back to 1977 which each only recorded a few thousand declined votes — with the exception of the 1990 election. More than 20,000 declined votes were tallied in that contest between Liberal premier David Peterson, New Democrat Bob

Rae and Progressive Conservative Mike Harris. Peterson called an election just three years into his mandate and Rae won a majority government in a shocking upset. Voter turnout that year was 64.4 per cent, the best turnout in nearly four decades and compared to 51.3 in 2014.

Voter information cards should soon be arriving in mailboxes if one hasn’t already appeared. The cards are being mailed between May 17 and 25.