Blank ballots express disillusionment when the whole electoral process is bankrupt

Evidence

Saramago brilliantly dramatizes a profound insight. The voters reject the choices put before them, because the entire process is bankrupt. And that refusal is a “bloodless revolutionary” act (sort of like in Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener: “I would prefer not to.”). … [T]hey had voted the way they voted because they were disillusioned and could find no other way of making it clear just how disillusioned they were, that they could have staged a revolution, but then many people would undoubtedly have died, something they would never have wanted, that all their lives they had patiently placed their vote in the ballot box, and the results were there for all to see. This isn’t democracy, sir, far from it. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 611

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the blank-out act as a bloodless refusal when the entire electoral process is judged bankrupt, not merely disappointment with candidates.
• XREF: connects to: Voting for the least-worst candidate legitimizes the system that creates the limited choice. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1390; Voting alone does not constitute the full work of democracy — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 616; Blank-out voting is a protest tactic that preserves turnout while withholding the presidential vote (+2 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Voting for the least-worst candidate legitimizes the system that creates the limited choice. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1390; Voting alone does not constitute the full work of democracy — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 616; Blank-out voting is a protest tactic that preserves turnout while withholding the presidential vote (+2 more)