Blank vote or abstention: what's the difference?

Blank voting and abstention are often confused. Yet they say very different things: the first validates the electoral procedure, the second withdraws consent from the game itself. Both are legal, counted separately, and express respectable political positions. Here are the differences.

Blank voting: reject candidates, validate the procedure

Voting blank means going to the polling station to slip an empty envelope or a blank ballot into the ballot box. By doing this, you reject the candidates running, but you validate the procedure: you recognize the legitimacy of the vote, you participate in the democratic ritual.

Blank votes have been counted separately since the law of 21 February 2014. They appear in official results under the heading "blank votes," distinct from spoiled ballots. But they do not enter the calculation of votes cast and have no legal effect: they cannot make an election fail, nor require a new ballot.

Abstention: withdraw consent from the system

Abstaining means not going to the polling station. You withdraw consent not only from the candidates, but from the electoral game itself. As stated on this site's homepage: "Blank voting expresses a rejection of candidates but support for the election method: by going, you validate the procedure, and the official count does nothing with it. Abstention withdraws consent from the game itself."

Abstention costs the system nothing — that is exactly its problem: a voter who abstains in silence disappears from the calculation without leaving a trace. No official count of motives, no recorded voice, no pressure on parties.

The numbers: how many in 2022?

In the 2022 presidential election, both were massively in the minority in the first round, but blank voting exploded in the second round:

• First round (10 April 2022): 12,824,169 abstentions (26.31%) and 543,609 blank votes (1.12%)
• Second round (24 April 2022): 13,655,861 abstentions (28.01%) and 2,233,904 blank votes (4.58%)

Source: Interior Ministry, official results.

Blank voting quadrupled between the two rounds. Combined, abstention and blank voting represent more than one in three registered voters (34.24%) in the second round of 2022.

Legal differences

In France, both actions are governed by law:

Both actions are therefore legal, counted and without legal consequence on the validity of the ballot. The difference is political, not legal.

Why the confusion?

Several reasons explain why many confuse the two:

• Media: Abstention and blank voting are often grouped under the phrase "non-expressed votes," which blurs the distinction.
• Similar effect: Both do not elect anyone and are ignored in calculating the winner.
• Campaign groups: Some organizations call for "voting blank" against abstention, others call for abstention against blank voting. The arguments get mixed up.
• Recent evolution: Before 2014, blank votes were not distinguished from spoiled ballots. Recognition is recent.

But the difference is real: voting blank means participating to protest. Abstaining means not participating.

Both are respectable

Neither action is "better" than the other. They express different political convictions:

• Voting blank means believing you must continue to participate in the system to signal disagreement with the offer.
• Abstaining means considering that the electoral system itself no longer deserves the support of participation.

This site campaigns for neither. Appstention 2027 registers those who abstain because they are the ones who have never had a spokesperson or a public map of their reasons. As indicated on the Understanding abstention page, the goal is to make abstention audible with its motives, not to convince anyone to abstain.

Have you already chosen abstention?

If you have decided not to vote in the 2027 presidential election, you can declare your abstention anonymously, validated by email, with your reasons. Your declaration enters a public counter and your testimony (optional) is published as-is after moderation.

The goal: that in April 2027, abstention is no longer just a percentage read at 8 PM, but a documented, sourced corpus, reusable by journalists, researchers and citizens.

Declare my abstention for 2027

To learn more: Understanding abstention (2022 figures, progression, motives) and Objections taken seriously.