A Rejected Ballot Is Not a Spoilt Ballot. The Difference Decides Races.
Updated 2 October 2026.
A spoilt ballot never reaches the box. A rejected ballot is found inside it.
The two words are used as if they mean the same thing, including by people who should know better, and only one of them ends up as a line on the results form that decides a seat.
What each word actually describes
A spoilt ballot is one a voter damages or marks wrongly before casting it. The voter returns it to the presiding officer, it is marked as spoilt and set aside, and a replacement is issued. It never enters the ballot box and it is never counted for anybody.
A rejected ballot is one that was cast. It went into the box like every other paper. At the count, the presiding officer sets it aside because the voter's intention cannot be determined from it, or because it breaks a rule about how a valid ballot must be marked.
A disputed ballot sits between the two. An agent objects to how a particular paper is being treated, the presiding officer rules on it, and the objection is recorded rather than argued about indefinitely.
Three categories, three different fates, one careless word.
Where the number is written down
Every results form has a line for rejected ballots, because the form has to reconcile.
Kenya's results forms run by office. The 34 series is presidential, 35 is MP, 36 is MCA, 37 is Governor, 38 is Senator and 39 is Woman Representative. Within a series, the A form is completed at the polling station and the B form at the constituency tally. The C form is the declaration at the county tally for the three county seats, and at the national tally for the presidential result.
The station-level A form is where a rejected ballot first appears as a number. Everything above it is addition. Related: why that line is the one nobody reads.
Why the count matters more than it looks
Because it is often larger than the margin.
Suppose a ward records 6,000 votes cast, of which 200 are rejected, and the top two candidates finish 120 votes apart. The rejected pile is bigger than the gap between first and second.
That does not mean the result is wrong. Rejected ballots are not a hidden reserve of votes for anybody, and most of them are rejected for ordinary reasons that would survive any review. What it means is narrower and more useful: the result cannot be independently checked without knowing how that pile was treated, and by then the pile has been sealed.
Related: what makes a race genuinely close.
Why rejection rates differ between the six ballots
The same voter, on the same day, is more likely to have one paper rejected than another.
A ballot with many candidates is physically larger and harder to mark cleanly. A contest a voter cares less about attracts more casual marking. Six papers issued at once in a small booth is a lot of paper to manage. None of that is misconduct and all of it shows up as variation between the 34 series and the 39 series in the same station.
So a high rejection figure in one contest and a low one in another is normal. A high figure in one station and nothing like it in the neighbouring station is a question worth asking.
What an agent should actually do about it
Watch the count and object at the moment, not afterwards.
A rejection decision is made once, in the room, by the presiding officer. After the form is signed and the materials are sealed, the only route left is a petition, and a petition needs evidence that already exists rather than a recollection.
So the sequence is simple and it is the whole job. Be present for the count. Raise an objection as each disputed paper is set aside. Check that the rejected-ballot line on the form matches the pile you watched being built. Confirm that votes cast, rejected ballots and valid votes reconcile against each other before anyone signs. Then take your signed copy of the form and keep it, because a photograph of a signed form in an agent's hand is the only version of that number you will ever control.
Recruit and train for that now, not in the week before 10 August 2027. The skill being trained is patience in a hot room at two in the morning, and nobody acquires it from a briefing on the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a spoilt ballot and a rejected ballot?
A spoilt ballot is returned to the presiding officer before it is cast, marked spoilt and replaced, so it never enters the box. A rejected ballot is one that was cast and then set aside at the count because the voter's intention cannot be determined or the marking breaks the rules. Only the rejected figure appears as a counted line on the results form.
Do rejected ballots change who wins?
They are not votes for anybody, so they cannot be redistributed. They matter because the rejected count is often larger than the winning margin, which means the result cannot be independently verified without knowing how those papers were treated. That is why agents are expected to object at the count rather than after it.
Where is the rejected-ballot number recorded?
On the results form for each office, starting with the A form completed at the polling station. Kenya uses the 34 series for President, 35 for MP, 36 for MCA, 37 for Governor, 38 for Senator and 39 for Woman Representative. Everything above the station form is aggregation of numbers first written there.