Election History Bites | Invalid votes record

At election time, there are voters who decide to stay at home, either in protest or because they are indifferent. But there are others who do bother to go and vote, only to spoil their ballot, either by mistake or because they intend to.

Historically, invalid votes have always hovered around the 1% mark when calculated as a percentage of ballots cast. However, there are two notable standouts—1945 and 2022.

In 1945, an election characterised by low voter turnout, the percentage of invalid votes stood at 2.5%. This meant that 643 voters from the 25,672, who cast their ballot, decided to spoil their vote.

The 2022 election, however, holds the all-time record with 2.9% of invalid votes. This translates into 8,802 voters who bothered to vote but decided to invalidate their ballot sheet.

Election History Bites powered by Agenda Bookshop is a series of election-inspired stories that will be published from Monday to Friday every morning throughout the election campaign