There is a little known option in Provincial Elections in Ontario. You can actually choose to "Decline" your ballot, essentially choosing none of the candidates in a way that is recorded as such, rather than as a spoiled or blank ballot. How do you do this? I published an article in The Guildwoodian on this option in 2014 and have reprinted it in part below for reference.
Are you Conservative, Liberal, NDP or other? In Ontario those are your choices, but what if you don't like any of those choices? What if you are a Conservative but Ford* just makes you angry and you don't want to vote for the Liberals because of all the scandals?
Well you can always stay home and not vote but that doesn't send a very good message because there is no difference between you and someone who is just to lazy to leave the house and vote. You could just spoil your ballot but then why even show up to the polling station, you're not accomplishing anymore than staying at home since the authorities don't know whether you spoiled the ballot on purpose.
There is a third option "None of the Above." Under Section 53 of the Ontario Elections Act, "An elector who has received a ballot and returns it to the deputy returning officer, declining to vote, forfeits the right to vote and the deputy returning officer shall immediately write the word 'declined' upon the back of the ballot... and (this) shall cause an entry to be made in the poll record that the elector declined to vote." Yes, you can actually vote for no party in a way that looks calculated and thoughtful, you just have to give your ballot back, without writing anything on it, as soon as you get it.
For more information on how to decline your vote see section 53 of the Ontario Election Act.
What do you think? Are you going to formaly decline your ballot? Join the discussion on Twitter @CliffcrestView
*The name of the PC Leader was changed to Ford for printing in this article. The original article lists Tim Hudak as the PC Leader.