Ballot paper design key to reducing rejected ballots — Justice Sophia Akuffo

Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo has underscored the need for properly designed ballot papers that will make selection of candidates easier for the electorate in elections on the African continent.

She said that invalid or rejected ballots posed a challenge to the credibility of electoral outcomes and, therefore, called for innovative methods to address the issue, citing both local and international examples.

For instance, Justice Akuffo, a member of the Council of State, mentioned a scientific study in Bogotá, Colombia, which demonstrated that simplifying ballot paper designs could lead to a significant reduction in invalid votes.

The study proved that a redesigned, more user-friendly ballot paper contributed to a 2.75 percentage-point decrease in rejected ballots—approximately 38 per cent fewer invalid votes during the city’s 2011 local elections, as compared to 2007.

“This experiment in the form of a voting simulation proved successful and formed the basis for the national registry’s decision to redesign the official ballot paper in a similar manner,” she said.

Forum

Justice Akuffo was speaking at an annual continental forum of electoral management bodies (EMBs) of the Association of African Election Authorities (AAEA) in Accra yesterday.

It was on the theme: “All votes count: Addressing the problem of invalid or rejected ballots in Africa.”

Participants included heads of election management bodies, diplomats and civil society organisations on the continent who would dialogue, share experiences, set standards and exchange lessons and best practices in the area of election management.

Situation

Rejected ballots remain a significant issue in African elections, with their prevalence varying widely across the continent.

According to the International IDEA Voter Turnout Database, recent presidential elections have seen rejection rates as low as 0.02 per cent in The Gambia, and as high as 27.93 in Togo.

In Ghana, rejected ballots have consistently ranged between one and three per cent since the country’s return to democratic rule in 1992.

The former Chief Justice acknowledged that poor voter turnout, complex voting systems, inadequate election education, and protest voting due to electoral dissatisfaction, all contributed to invalid ballots.

She, therefore, called on governments, electoral management bodies and relevant stakeholders to renew efforts in responding to “this pervasive threat” to preserve public trust in the electoral process, to reaffirm its legitimacy and ultimately safeguard democracy.

E-voting

The President of the Executive Committee of the AAEA, Jean Mensa, called on African election management bodies to consider adopting electronic voting systems to reduce the incidence of rejected ballots. 

She suggested a simplified e-voting system such as direct recording devices where voters select their preferred candidate on a screen.

The president said that persistent high rates of rejected ballots threaten public confidence in elections and could destabilise democracies, as such a digitalised process could help minimise errors caused by manual thumb-printing. 

Mrs Mensa, who is also the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, said a nationwide audit conducted after the 2020 polls revealed that many rejected ballots resulted from voter illiteracy, intentional ballot defacement and overly cautious assessments by election officials.

She said through the commission’s efforts, rejected ballots dropped from 2.33 per cent in 2020, to 2.03 per cent in 2024.