Spoilt vote

In voting, a ballot is considered spoilt (chiefly British), spoiled (chiefly American), void, null, informal, invalid, rejected or stray if a law declares or an election authority determines that it is invalid and thus not included in the vote count. This may occur accidentally or deliberately. The total number of spoilt votes in a United States election has been called the residual vote.

In some jurisdictions, spoilt votes are counted and reported.