I think blank votes are ignored because there are so few of them.
If an election is getting 10 or 20% blank votes, that’s hard to ignore because it means a huge fraction of actually engaged and active voters - who could’ve just as easilly put a cross somewhere - aren’t being served.
Amongst other things it tells existing parties that “my vote is here for the taking”.
I think blank votes are ignored because there are so few of them.
If an election is getting 10 or 20% blank votes, that’s hard to ignore because it means a huge fraction of actually engaged and active voters - who could’ve just as easilly put a cross somewhere - aren’t being served.
Amongst other things it tells existing parties that “my vote is here for the taking”.