election abstention
Sign in to saveAlso known as abstention, Anti-voting, non-voting
thumb|Comparative results of 2011 Canadian federal election with or without abstention
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- political movement
- Subclass of
- abstinence
- Said to be same as
- absenteeism
Show 4 more facts
- partially coincident with
- protest vote
- Commons category
- Abstention
- different from
- blank vote
- facet of
- voting
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Active abstention
- International and national parliamentary procedures
- Justification
- Criticisms
- Alternatives
- See also
- References
thumb|Comparative results of 2011 Canadian federal election with or without abstention
Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by marking it wrongly or by not marking anything at all. A "blank voter" has voted, although their vote may be considered a spoilt vote, depending on each legislation, while an abstaining voter has not voted. Both forms (abstention and blank vote) may or may not, depending on the circumstances, be considered to be a protest vote (also known as a "blank vote"). Abstention is related to political apathy and low voter turnout.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “election abstention” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.