Undervote


An undervote occurs when the number of choices selected by a voter in a contest is less than the maximum number allowed for that contest or when no selection is made for a single choice contest.
In a contested election, an undervote can be construed as active voter disaffection; a voter engaged enough to cast a vote without the willingness to give the vote to any candidate. An undervote can be intentional for purposes including protest votes, tactical voting, or abstention. Alternately undervotes can be unintentional and caused by many factors including poor ballot design.
Undervotes combined with overvotes can be an academic indicator in evaluating the accuracy of a voting system when recording voter intent.