The General Elections Commission (KPU) has prepared six models of simplification of ballot papers for the 2024 election. One of the simplifications of ballots is to make it easier for voters to cast their voting rights.
"Voters difficulty to cast their votes because of the large number of ballots resulting in a high number of invalid votes," said Evi Novida Ginting, during an online discussion on "Simplifying Simultaneous Election Ballots" organized by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) (8/1).
Portrait of Invalid Votes in the 2019 Legislative Elections
The number of invalid votes in the 2019 legislative election (Pileg) is indeed quite high. The percentage of invalid votes reached 11.12 percent, while the rest (88.88 percent) were declared valid. In each electoral district, on average there was 10.82 percent of invalid votes.
This figure is fairly high—above the upper limit of the tolerable proportion of invalid ballots of three to four percent. This proportion is supported by data from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) “Voter Turnout Database” which records the global average invalid vote is less than three percent.
When compared with the previous election, the number of invalid votes tends to stagnate above 10 percent. In the 1999 general election, invalid votes were only 3.4 percent. Meanwhile in the 2004 legislative elections, the number of invalid votes rose to 8.8 percent. In the 2009 to 2019 elections, the percentage of invalid votes was always above 10 percent. The percentage of invalid votes in a row is 14.4 percent; 10.46 percent; and 11.12 percent.
A Flourish chartThe five electoral districts with the largest percentage of invalid votes in the 2019 elections were East Java 8 (18.87 percent); Bengkulu (17.36 percent); Banten 2 (17.36 percent); Central Java 3 (17.32 percent); and South Kalimantan 1 (16.86 percent).
Meanwhile, the five electoral districts with the largest percentage of valid votes were Papua (97.77 percent); NTT 1 (96.09 percent); Gorontalo (95.48 percent); South Sulawesi 3 (95.23 percent); and East Java 11 (95.14 percent).
Vote for the Party or the candidate?
Another thing that is considered complicated is finding and voting for the names of legislative candidates. The results of the Kompas Daily survey in the article "Supporting the Voting to Be Simplified" revealed that 82.7 percent of respondents were confused about the names of legislative candidates to be elected because there were too many ballot papers.
In the 2019 DPR RI Legislative election, the total votes for the party reached 24.88 percent. Meanwhile, the overall vote for the legislative candidates reached 75.12 percent. This figure can reflect the preference of voters to vote for the party symbol of 24.88 percent. Of course, this figure does not reflect the voters who just voted for the party symbol. Because, in accordance with KPU Regulation (PKPU) 3/2019 and PKPU 9/2019, voters who vote for more than one candidate name in one party, their votes are valid and counted for the party.
The average number of voters who voted for legislative candidates in each electoral district was 76.43 percent. Meanwhile, the average number of voters who voted for party symbol in each electoral district was 23.58 percent. The five electoral districts with the percentage of voters who voted for the party symbol were West Java 3 (36.38 percent); DKI Jakarta 2 (38.07 percent); West Java 5 (37.74 percent); and West Java 4 (35.9 percent).
Meanwhile, the five electoral districts with the largest percentage of voters who voted for legislative candidates were East Java 11 (93.62 percent); Papua (93.09 percent); South Sulawesi (92.66 percent); and Maluku (91.78 percent).
