As the polls close on Saturday evening, scrutineers will be busy sorting through thousands of ballots intentionally spoiled by Victorians who just couldn't bear to vote.

Many are blank. Others are given over to screeds blasting politicians, parties or policies. Some are marked with obscene drawings - the most popular being the doodle of the doodle.

"The drawings tend to be anatomical, though I do remember a picture of a donkey," said Paul Thornton-Smith, the Victorian Electoral Commissions senior information and research officer.

"The written comments are usually along the lines that none of the candidates is worth voting for."

The VEC reports that 4.96 per cent of votes for the Legislative Assembly were invalid in the 2010 election, hitting a record high. It fell to a near-record low of 3.38 per cent for the Legislative Council.

An analysis of the invalid votes found that more than 25 per cent were left blank and nearly 13 per cent contained written messages or drawings.

In any case, the voter failed to make a choice and the ballot paper ended up in the bin.

But there will also be some Victorians who cast their ballot properly and still can't resist the opportunity to make a statement.

It's a little-known election fact that providing a ballot paper has been filled out correctly, the vote must be accepted by the VEC regardless of what else has been written or drawn on it.

"You see a range of things from really rude comments about particular candidates to drawings of, well, a personal nature," one scrutineer told The Sunday Age.

The one exception to the rule is any information that might identify the voter like a name, address or signature.

Just how common a practice it has become isn't known because the paper is still considered legitimate and counted like any other ballot.

"They don't affect the vote, so they're irrelevant as far as the VEC is concerned," Mr Thornton-Smith said.

cvedelago@theage.com.au