Whenever he runs unopposed in his Democratic primary he counts the blank votes cast, precinct by precinct, knowing that rivals are doing the same.In today's Democratic Party, challengers seldom invoke ideology, Mr Capuano notes, contrasting his lot with that of Republican incumbents who must fear organised attacks from the right.
Not long before, in Barcelona, Catalonia's capital, the province's President, Carles Puigdemont, had asked his parliament for a yes or no vote on a unilateral declaration of independence: the result was seventy in favor, ten against, and two blank votes cast.
Oversized lens blanks are cast in plastic, and then technicians grind and polish them to match individual prescriptions.
In Parliament today, reformers refused to vote for the two candidates who ended up on the Guardian Council, casting blank ballots.
Until three weeks ago, it appeared possible that the number of those casting blank ballots or spoiling their ballots could reach as many as a third of the electorate.
Bernard Gonel, a 66-year-old retiree from the region of Finistère, on France's northwest coast, said he had been casting blank ballots in every presidential election since François Mitterrand, a Socialist, left power in 1995, because he felt disgusted by a political system that, to him, seemed all about money and power.
Since the width of the slugs is also uniform, when shorter lines are being cast the composing stick is furnished with thick, blank matrices; once cast, the line is clipped off to the proper length.
Statehood won the largest number of votes, but because commonwealth supporters cast blank ballots on the second question in protest, statehood failed to win a majority of the votes cast.
Of those who did, 21% cast blank or spoiled ballots.
And 78 people apparently accidentally cast blank ballots.
