While most parties experience ups and downs from election to election, there is a “party” that is constantly growing. Over the last three parliamentary elections, municipal council elections and county council elections, the number of blank votes has increased without exception. Is it a wasted ballot, or a way to show commitment? For 27-year-old Julie, it felt more right to vote blank than to sit at home. Julie Hestø Steinbakk will vote, but has not quite decided on which party. Photo: Ola Helness / news On September 11, the people of Norway will vote on who will sit in the municipal council and the county council. Then Julie Hestø Steinbakk will vote in Bodø municipality. She hasn’t quite decided what she will vote for yet. – I think a lot of people may not know what to vote for. In a previous election, she was unable to make up her mind, and ended up casting a blank vote. – I wasn’t sure what I wanted to vote for, so I thought it was more important to show that you are committed. So I voted blank. Don’t know who the blanks are Just over 38,000 people voted blankly at the county council election in 2019. By comparison, the Pensioners’ Party received approximately 32,000 votes. In Innlandet county, there were more people who voted blankly than there were who voted for both KrF and Venstre. At the local council elections, the blank votes have doubled within a few years, and during the general election the blank votes have also increased. Since 1957, the Institute for Social Research has carried out large-scale surveys in connection with parliamentary elections. The information they have collected allows us to see which voter groups vote for which party. What they cannot say, however, is who is behind the blank votes. – It is simply because there are too few who vote blank to know anything about them through surveys, says researcher Jo Saglie. He still believes that there may be a possible common denominator. – If you see voting as a civic duty, then it makes sense to vote blank. Jo Saglie researches elections and democracy for the Institute for Social Research. Photo: Institute for Social Research – But you can ask yourself what is the point of voting blank, when you can just as easily sit at home since the blank votes have no bearing on the election result, says Saglie. A signal Author and social debater Jan Arild Snoen believes the point is to signal that you care. – That you think democracy and the right to vote are good, but that you have not found your party or familiarized yourself enough with it. Jan Arild Snoen believes that a blank voice can be a signal that you care. Photo: PHILIPPE BÉDOS ULVIN Snoen has voted blankly in the last two parliamentary elections. He believes that neither party is good enough. – I will vote for a party that I feel will take Norway in the right direction. It is not sufficient for me to vote for a party that only takes Norway in a less wrong direction. – That is why I vote blank. It is important to signal that one is not indifferent to democracy. Illustration: Malin Nygård Solberg / news But this autumn the ballot will not be blank. In his home municipality of Oslo, Snoen has found a party that deserves his vote. – It feels right. – But if I don’t find a party that I agree with enough at the general election in two years, it will probably be blank again. Wants to show resistance In contrast to Snoen, Gry Josten Seim does not think she will be voting for a party this autumn. She lives in Kinn municipality in Western Norway, and is considering voting blank for the first time. – It is because I want to show my opposition to, among other things, wind turbines. Gry Josten Seim has lost trust in the politicians, and is considering voting blank. Photo: Privat She believes politicians forget that they have been elected because of the positions they have taken, and that they lose focus when they get to the board. – If you have a different point of view than fellow politicians or the media, you will be silenced to death or hacked to pieces. – Politicians must remember why they were elected. Not for them to become part of a flock of sheep, but to stand for what they were chosen for. This is needed to regain my trust, she says. Illustration: Malin Nygård Solberg / news An approved vote without significance Although it has been possible to vote blank for a long time, there has not been an organized counting of the blank votes until the general election in 2009. Today all the blank votes are counted. Nevertheless, they are thrown together with all the votes for May O. Nes, Lydia Nalen, or Kjell T. Ring. A blank vote is not an approved vote. Earlier this year, the Storting passed a new electoral law which will be valid from and including the general election in 2025. It states that blank votes should be counted as approved votes. The proposal to make blank ballots approved Blank ballot papers cannot be approved according to current law, cf. section 10-3 first paragraph of the Electoral Act. The ministry believes that this rule does not match the election regulations in general. The ministry points out that according to section 20 of the electoral regulations, the electoral authorities must ensure that blank ballot papers are produced which voters can use to vote blank. Furthermore, the number of blank ballots is recorded separately in the count. According to the ministry’s assessment, voters who turn up at the polling station and deliberately vote blank by using a ballot paper that the electoral authorities have printed and posted in the polling station, must be able to expect that their vote will be approved. On this basis, the ministry proposes that blank ballot papers should be approved, provided that the ballot paper has a public stamp and that it is clear from the ballot paper which election it applies to. However, blank ballots shall not be included in the election settlement. Source: Prop. 45 L (2022–2023) Recommendation from the Ministry of Local Government and Districts on 3 March 2023, approved by the Cabinet on the same day. (Government Støre) But even when the blank votes are to be counted as approved, they shall still not be included in the election settlement. – When blank ballots are not included in the election settlement, it is because it is not desirable to have “empty seats” in the elected bodies. That’s what Siri Dolven in the Ministry of Local Government and Districts says. Siri Dolven is department director in the section for elections and local democracy in the Municipal Department in the Ministry of Local Government and Districts. Photo: Ministry of Local Government and Districts As an example, we can say that a municipality has 1,000 inhabitants. All citizens vote, and 250 of these vote blankly. If blank votes had had any actual effect on the election result, a quarter of the seats in the municipal council would have been empty. Therefore, the blank votes are kept out – even when they are approved votes from and including the 2025 general election. Illustration: Malin Nygård Solberg / news So formally, the only difference between not voting and voting blank is that one is included in the statistics on electoral participation. But what’s the point of blank voting if it has no effect on the outcome? – The idea behind having the opportunity to vote blank is to give voters an opportunity to participate in the election, even if the voter does not support any of the parties, says Dolven. Do you know what to vote for? Yes I haven’t decided yet There will probably be a blank vote this year I will not vote Show result Photo: malin nygård solberg
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More blank votes in the municipal council and county council elections – news Nordland
