What makes a vote invalid in an election? Electoral expert explains common mistakes

What is required for a vote to become invalid? Mikael Stenås in Västerås has worked with many elections and seen most of the mistakes - which can cause your vote not to be counted.

- There was someone who wanted to vote for both the Left Party and the Sweden Democrats, says Mikael Stenås, election coordinator at the city of Västerås.

In the 2022 parliamentary election, 69,831 votes were invalid throughout the country. That corresponded to 1.07 percent of all votes cast.

The largest part of the invalid votes are so-called blank votes. A very conscious choice for many voters, but leaving the ballot paper blank does not have to mean that you are uninterested in the election.

- I think that if you vote blankly or for a "hit-and-run" party, you are saying that democracy is important - but the parties are bad, says Mikael Stenås, electoral coordinator at the city of Västerås.

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In the clip: The Johansson family gets to test which votes are valid - and Mikael Stenås shows what can make your vote not count.

Invalid votes

An invalid vote is not counted in the election results or the allocation of mandates if...

It is completely blank

You put ballots for different parties in the same envelope

You vote for a party that does not stand in the election

It is not possible to see which party you have voted for

The ballot paper contains something that can make it identifiable

You yourself have changed or written on the ballot paper in a way that makes the vote invalid

An incorrect personal vote does not have to mean that the entire vote becomes invalid. The party vote can still be counted.

Source: The Electoral Authority

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