A disliked candidate is running unopposed, is it better not to vote or joke vote?

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I was having an interesting conversation last night, and was wondering what a broader audience would think of this.

If a candidate for an office like Village President is running for reelection unopposed, but you really dislike the job she was doing, is it better to simply not vote for the office or should I write-in something like "Mickey Mouse" if there was no disqualified opponent?

 

Neither. It would be best to run for the position yourself and, if elected, do a better job than she did.

 

Leave it blank. Cuteness is rarely ever a good idea, because pretty much no one thinks it's cute except the 'clever' guy/gal who's saying something that's actually dumb.

In practical terms, either blank or Mickey Mouse are both non-entities, so you're not actually voting for someone, just 'making a statement.' Statements like that are generally lost on your likely audience - the people counting or processing the ballots. Pointless gesture, and one that generally exposes ego in the speaker ("Look at me, I'm cute!") more than anything else. The ballot counters won't think you're delightful, they'll think you're dumb.

 

Yeah leave it blank, noone who cares will ever see your 'protest'

 

I go blank also.

 

I've heard you do that a lot.

Anyway, unless you have a serious write-in candidate, I'd leave it blank too.

 

I often leave unopposed elections blank, though I sometimes vote for an unopposed person I support.

Though there are times I've been tempted to write in a friends name and an unopposed person I didn't like would certainly be one of those.

FYI there have been rare local elections where a write in candidate wins-including a candidate who didn't know he or she was one until election day.

 

There are some districts where leaving a blank invalidates the entire ballot. In those districts you must vote for a candidate or list a write in (if that's an option) -- or all your other votes won't count.

 

In my district, which uses Cook County election laws, it simply flags your ballot as having "undervoted" when you turn it in for processing, and then the election judge will ask you if you'd like your ballot back so you can go back to the machine or punch book (you have a choice, punch card or electronic) and vote for the ones you left blank.

They said you don't have to finish, and it will only count the votes you made and not count the ones you left blank.

I've always left most of the judges blank because they get Zero press coverage unless you count the Daily Herald printing who they endorse the day before the election, and it's a simple "yes" or "no" for retention or a simple candidate name with no details on why.

Also, it's often hard to find exactly what is going to be on my ballot in terms of judges. I often forget exactly which trustee for the water reclamation commission I can vote for or certain other local positions that I never have to interact with and don't get much press coverage. Heck, I keep forgetting what the comptroller does and I know I've looked it up the last three elections.

I do not know how you cast a write-in vote with the old punch cards, but they seem to be phasing it out. Every presidential election this decade since 2004 the allotment has had more and more electronic voting booths and fewer punch cards.