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If history is a guide, a majority of us — 50.8 per cent in 2011 — will decline our ballots in Thursday’s Ontario election.

We’ll do this by simply not showing up at a polling station.

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Some may wish by this action — or inaction — to send a message of frustration with the available choices. But face it: Don’t vote, and you’re more likely to be labelled apathetic than a conscientious avoider.

There is, however, a way to get your “none of the above” choice recognized. Not by spoiling your ballot with happy faces in all the white circles — again, open to misinterpretation of your motives — but by following Ontario’s formal procedure for declining to vote.

Here’s how it works.

Thanks but no thanks

The deputy returning officer at your poll hands you your ballot and you hand it back. You can, if you wish, say “I decline” while doing this, but there is no requirement for any declaration, oral or written, under the Ontario Election Act. The DRO will write “declined” on the ballot, preserve it for the returning officer and note in the poll record that the elector — you — declined to vote.