Osaka Double Election Sees Unprecedented Invalid Votes, Sparking Public Outcry
The recent Osaka double election has revealed an unprecedentedly large number of invalid votes, causing a significant stir on social media and beyond. In the mayoral election alone, over 170,000 votes, exceeding 13% of the total, were deemed invalid. Similarly, the gubernatorial election saw over 410,000 invalid votes, accounting for more than 10%. According to reports from the Asahi Shimbun, the absence of strong opposing candidates in these elections is analyzed as a contributing factor to the high number of invalid votes. Social media posts echoed this sentiment, with many comments such as, "I thought this would happen, and it did," and "This was the first election where I felt like I didn't want to vote for anyone." Some citizens view the blank ballots (where no name is written) or invalid votes containing entries other than candidate names as an expression of discontent, either as a backlash against the Osaka Ishin no Kai's renewed push for the Osaka Me...