# Undervote An **undervote** is a ballot on which fewer choices are marked than the contest allows — including a contest left entirely blank. Unlike an [[Overvote]], an undervote is counted as cast and is not adjudicated: declining to vote in a race is a legal choice, not an error. Undervote rates are nonetheless a diagnostic. An unusually high undervote in one contest on one equipment type is the classic signature of a ballot-design or machine problem rather than of voter indifference, which is why election officials and litigants both read them closely. Expand with: notable undervote anomalies, the distinction from a blank ballot, and residual-vote-rate methodology. This is a stub — created in the 2026-10-01 ASCII map build for [[How a Ballot Is Counted]]. Expand as noted above. ## See Also - [[How a Ballot Is Counted]] - [[Overvote]] - [[Ballot Adjudication]]