Turtle Party

With the general elections on going at the moment, there's a note by a kindhearted volunteer polling agent circulating in facebook informing the public that drawing a turtle in the box on ballot paper will not actually spoil the vote and instead the vote will go to the party that the box belongs to. Same thing goes for those drawing a big cross that exceeds the boundaries of the box in hope to spoil the vote. As long as the centre of the cross lies within a box, the vote will be considered valid and the party that the box belongs to will have that particular vote.

So, how true is it? i decided to check on the statue itself to see on what grounds and conditions will a vote be rejected. Here is the URL Statutes - Contested Elections to the relevant statue about contested elections and based on what i see under section 50, the volunteer is making a valid case. A vote is rejected only when it is unmarked or it is uncertain which party you are voting for (i.e. crossing both boxes) or when you identified yourself on the ballot paper (e.g. beside your cross, you wrote, "Yours faithfully, Mr Smith Tan." So, please stop doddling on your vote or you may unintentionally end up voting for the team that you didn't wish to root for in the first place.

50. —(1) The Returning Officer shall reject as invalid the following ballot papers only, namely, any ballot paper —

(a) which does not bear the complete official mark for the authentication of ballot papers or is not initialled by the presiding officer;

(b) on which votes are given for more than one candidate or group of candidates;

(c) on which anything is written or marked by which the voter can be identified except the printed number on the back;

(d) which is unmarked; or

(e) which is void for uncertainty. .