You’re standing in the voting booth. The curtain is closed—or you're leaning over your kitchen table with a mail-in envelope—and you hit a wall. You recognize the names for President. You might even have a strong opinion on the Senatorial race. But then you get to "County Water Commissioner" or "Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor."
Suddenly, you realize you have no idea who these people are.
You haven't researched them. You don't want to guess. So, the question hits you: can you leave blanks on your ballot or will the whole thing get tossed in the trash?
The short answer? Yes. You absolutely can. In fact, it's a standard practice called "undervoting."
Most people worry that a partially filled-out ballot is like a scantron test in high school where missing one bubble ruins your score. That's just not how American elections work. Your ballot isn't an "all or nothing" contract. It’s a series of independent choices. If you skip the race for dog catcher but vote for every other office, your votes for those other offices still count. Every single one of them.
The Mechanics of the Undervote
When you leave a race blank, the scanning machine (or the hand-counter, in some rare jurisdictions) simply records an "undervote" for that specific contest.
It’s a data point.
Election officials see these numbers in every cycle. According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), undervoting is incredibly common in "down-ballot" races. These are the local positions found at the bottom of the page. People get "voter fatigue." It’s real. By the time someone finishes weighing in on a heated Presidential race and three complex state propositions, they might not have the mental energy to choose between two competing judges they've never heard of.
Does it invalidate the rest of the page?
No.
If you’re wondering if you can leave blanks on your ballot and still have your Presidential pick counted, the answer is a resounding yes. Think of your ballot as a tray of cafeteria food. Just because you didn't pick the mystery meat doesn't mean they take away your mashed potatoes and your chocolate milk.
Actually, in some states, skipping a race is considered a more "informed" choice than picking a name at random. It’s a way of saying, "I don't have enough information to make a responsible choice here." That is your right.
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Why Some People Purposefully Leave Blanks
It’s not always about being uninformed. Sometimes, it's a protest.
Imagine you’re a lifelong member of a specific political party, but you find your party's nominee for a certain office to be completely unacceptable. You also can't bring yourself to vote for the opposition. By leaving that spot blank, you are intentionally withholding your support.
Election analysts look at these gaps.
If 100,000 people in a county vote for President, but only 85,000 vote for a specific Congressional candidate on that same ballot, that 15,000-vote gap tells a story. It tells the party that their candidate underperformed the top of the ticket. It’s a loud silence.
The "Overvote" Danger
While leaving a blank is totally fine, doing the opposite is a disaster.
An overvote happens when you mark more candidates than allowed—like picking two people for a seat that only allows one. If you do that, the machine will likely flag an error. In most modern polling places, the scanner will spit the ballot back out and beep at you. It’ll tell you there’s an error in "Race X."
At that point, you have a choice:
- You can "spoil" the ballot and ask for a fresh one.
- You can tell the machine to "accept" it anyway.
If you choose to accept it, the machine will count all your valid votes but will record zero votes for the race where you picked too many people. Basically, overvoting a race has the same outcome as leaving it blank—no one gets your vote for that office—but it’s a lot messier.
Can You Leave Blanks on Your Ballot During a Primary?
Primaries are a bit weirder because of the different rules across states like California, Florida, or Illinois.
In a "closed primary," you’re only voting for candidates within your registered party. In an "open primary," you might get to choose which party's ballot you want. Regardless of the system, the "blank space" rule remains the same. You don't have to vote for every single precinct committeeman or delegate if you don't want to.
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Some people worry that in states with "straight-ticket voting" (where you can pull one lever or fill one bubble to vote for every candidate in a party), they can't change their minds.
Actually, even in those states, you can usually "override" the straight-ticket choice by marking a specific candidate in a different race or simply leaving a specific race blank if the machine allows for it. However, straight-ticket options are becoming rarer; most states have moved away from them to encourage voters to look at each race individually.
What About Write-Ins?
If you're thinking about leaving a blank because you hate all the options, you might be tempted to write in a name instead.
"Mickey Mouse" gets a lot of votes every year. So does "Batman."
But here is a reality check: in most states, write-in votes only count if the person has formally filed as a "write-in candidate" before the election. If you write in your neighbor's name and they haven't registered with the board of elections, that vote is functionally the same as a blank. It won't be tallied for a real person; it’ll just be lumped into a "scattering" or "other" category during the final audit.
State-Specific Oddities
While the general rule is that you can leave blanks, the physical way you do it can matter.
In some jurisdictions using older paper ballots, an empty race might look like an invitation for someone to tamper with the ballot after you’ve turned it in. While election security measures (like bipartisan observers and locked ballot boxes) make this nearly impossible, some "old school" voters still prefer to write "N/A" or draw a line through skipped races.
Don't do that.
Do not write anything outside the designated bubbles or boxes unless you are doing a legitimate write-in. Extra marks on a ballot can confuse the optical scanners. If the scanner can't read your ballot because you wrote "none of these bums" across the bottom, your ballot might have to go to a "duplication board." That's where two election workers—one from each major party—have to manually sit down and figure out what you intended to do. It delays the count and introduces human eyes into what should be a private process.
If you want to skip it, just leave the bubble empty. The machine is programmed to handle it.
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The Downside of Skipping Races
We've established that you can skip races. But should you?
Local elections—the ones people skip most often—usually have a much bigger impact on your daily life than the person in the White House.
- School Boards: They decide what your kids learn and how your property taxes are spent.
- Judges: They decide how the law is applied in your community.
- City Council: They decide if that noisy bar can open next to your house or if the potholes on your street get filled.
When you leave these blanks, you are essentially letting your neighbors decide for you. In small local races, the margin of victory can be less than ten votes. Your "blank" could have literally been the deciding factor.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, you don't have to guess. Most states allow you to bring a "cheat sheet" or even your phone into the voting booth (check your local laws first, as some states like Texas have strict rules about cell phones in the booth). You can look up a non-partisan voter guide from organizations like Ballotpedia or the League of Women Voters while you’re standing there.
Practical Steps for Your Next Election
If you’re planning on voting soon and think you might leave some sections blank, here’s how to handle it like a pro.
First, get a sample ballot. You can usually find these on your Secretary of State’s website or your local County Clerk’s page weeks before the election. Print it out. Use it to identify the "mystery races" ahead of time so you aren't surprised when you’re in the booth.
Second, understand the "Undervote" report. After the election, check your county’s official results. They will usually publish the number of "undervotes" for each race. It’s fascinating to see how many other people also chose to leave those same blanks. It might make you feel less alone in your indecision.
Third, don't panic if the machine beeps. If you purposefully left a race blank and the machine flags it as an "undervoted ballot," it’s just doing its job. It wants to make sure you didn't skip it by accident. Just follow the prompts to "Cast Ballot" or "Confirm."
Your vote is your voice, and sometimes that voice says "I don't know" or "I don't like either of these." That is a perfectly legal, valid part of the democratic process.
Final Checklist for the Voting Booth:
- Check for "Vote for [Number]" instructions: Some races let you pick two or three candidates. Don't skip them just because you thought you could only pick one.
- Avoid stray marks: No "X" marks or "N/A" comments.
- Use the provided pen: The ink matters for the scanners.
- Review the summary screen: If you’re using a digital machine, it will show you a page at the end listing every race you skipped. Read it carefully to ensure you didn't miss something you actually cared about.
Leaving blanks is a right. It won't break the system, it won't cancel your other votes, and it won't get you in trouble. It’s simply one way to navigate a complex ballot.