Voter rolloff

Ballot with too few choices selected

"Undervote" redirects here. For invalidated ballots, see spoilt vote. For incomplete ballots under RCV, see ballot exhaustion.

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Voting

Balloting

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Collection
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Counting
Popular vote Tally Voting machine

Electoral systems

Plurality and majoritarian systems
First-past-the-post voting Two-round system Instant-runoff voting Plurality-at-large voting General ticket Usual judgment
Proportional and semi-proportional systems
Single non-transferable vote Cumulative voting Binomial system Party-list Single transferable voting Spare vote
Mixed-member systems
Mixed-member proportional Additional member system Mixed single vote (positive vote transfer) Scorporo (negative vote transfer) Mixed ballot transferable vote Alternative Vote Plus Dual-member proportional Rural–urban proportional Majority bonus system Parallel voting (Mixed member majoritarian)

Voting strategies

Protest votes
Issue voting Fusion voting Split-ticket voting Straight-ticket voting Tactical voting Vote pairing
Abstention Donkey vote Election boycott None of the above Refused ballot Spoilt vote

Voting patterns and effects

Protest votes
Coattail effect Voting advice application Likely voter Paradox of voting Passive electioneering Vote splitting Political apathy Voter fatigue Voter turnout

Electoral fraud and prevention

Prevention
Ballot harvesting Ballot stuffing Voter intimidation Vote buying Voter suppression Voter caging
Election ink Secret ballot Voter registration End-to-end verifiable voting

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Voter drop-off, roll-off, or undervoting occurs when a voter selects fewer options in a contest than the maximum number allowed or makes no selection at all for a particular election.^[1] Undervotes may be intentional or unintentional.^[2]

Intentional undervotes arise from deliberate abstention. An individual may participate in the election but decline to support any candidate as a form of protest, or may simply choose not to vote for lower offices because they lack information or interest in downballot races.^[2] For example, a voter might select a presidential candidate but abstain from a concurrent county commissioner election.^[3]

Unintentional undervotes may result from poor ballot design or voter misunderstanding. For instance, a voter mistakenly marking a preference ballot by selecting the same candidate for multiple positions could lead to an undervote.^[4]^[2]

Undervotes, together with overvotes (where a voter selects more options than are allowed), are collectively referred to as residual votes . These are used in academic studies to assess the accuracy and reliability of voting systems in capturing voter intent.^[4]