tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338612245455097792.post5065406731990428253..comments2023-09-11T10:45:49.957-07:00Comments on Honduras Culture and Politics: Spoiled Ballots Say SomethingRAJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097415587406899236noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338612245455097792.post-85936497648622423532017-03-22T21:49:09.381-07:002017-03-22T21:49:09.381-07:00"Scholars interpret blank and spoiled ballots..."Scholars interpret blank and spoiled ballots as resulting from some combination of voter incapacity, where citizens lack the requisite skills or information to cast a valid ballot, and political motivations, when voters deliberately signal their malcontent."<br /><br />This was studied in some depth in the US election of 2000. Although <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/us/examining-vote-patterns-ballots-cast-blacks-older-voters-were-tossed-far-greater.html" rel="nofollow">this NYT story</a> is a little fuzzy, Klinkner concluded that education had nothing to do with ballot spoilage... and in some of the areas of Florida, educational levels may be even lower than in Honduras. <br /><br />As for political motivations, Mary Francis Berry claimed that some voters deliberately spoiled their ballots. While I never heard her explanation, a guess might be that a voter promised two different candidates to vote for them. That way the voter could tell both of them that they had voted for them--while in fact voting for neither, since the ballot would be tossed.Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04761044906837521471noreply@blogger.com