Abstention's a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either doesn't go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure,'s present during the vote, but doesn't cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a participant in a vote cast a deliberately unlegitimate vote (drawing pictures on the ballot, etc.) or in which he simply casts a blank vote: a "blank (or white) voter" has voted, although his vote may be considered a spoilt vote, depe… (More on Abstain)