wasted votes
Ballots without impact
Wasted votes are ballots that don't contribute to electing a candidate—either cast for a losing candidate or surplus votes beyond what a winner needed.
The concept is central to debates about electoral systems: winner-take-all elections typically produce more wasted votes than proportional representation.
Third-party supporters are often told they're wasting their votes.
Critics argue the framing discourages voting one's conscience.
- spoiledRuined or overindulged
- ballotsVoting forms
- electoralConcerning choosing representatives
- first past the postHighest vote count wins
- gerrymanderingManipulating electoral boundaries strategically
plurality · runoff · electoral reform · third-party · lesser evil · disenfranchised · swing · margins · turnout · apathy · protest · futile · strategic · tactical · spoiler · redistricting · safe seats · threshold
- electoral systemsproportional representation, party list, electoral threshold, quota, seats
- gerrymanderingpacking, cracking, redistricting, district lines, racial gerrymandering
waste, wasted, wastes, wasting, wasteful, wastefully, wastefulness, wastage, wasteland