Eligió el voto en blanco.

Eligió is the pretérito indefinido (the simple past / preterite), third person singular of elegir.

So it means that the action is seen as a completed event in the past: someone chose that option.

• yo elegí = I chose
• tú elegiste = you chose
• él/ella/usted eligió = he/she/you chose

In this sentence, the subject could be he, she, or you (formal) depending on context.

The accent mark shows where the stress goes: e-li-GIÓ.

Without the accent, Spanish spelling rules would suggest a different stress pattern. The written accent makes it clear that the stress falls on the last syllable.

It also helps signal the verb ending for the third person singular preterite:

• eligió
• decidió
• prefirió

Spanish often omits subject pronouns when the verb form already makes the subject clear. This is very normal.

So:

• Eligió el voto en blanco.
• Él eligió el voto en blanco.

Both are correct, but the version without the pronoun is usually more natural unless you want emphasis or contrast.

For example:

• Ella eligió el voto en blanco, pero él votó a otro partido.

Here, el voto en blanco refers to a specific option or category: the blank vote / casting a blank ballot as a known electoral choice.

With verbs like elegir, Spanish often uses the definite article when talking about choosing between established options:

• Eligió el menú vegetariano.
• Eligieron la opción más barata.
• Eligió el voto en blanco.

Using un voto en blanco is not impossible in all contexts, but in this sentence el sounds more natural because it treats it as the option selected.

En blanco is a very common expression meaning blank, left empty, or unmarked, depending on context.

So voto en blanco is not literally about the color white. It means a blank vote / blank ballot, that is, a ballot submitted without choosing a candidate or party.

You also see en blanco in other expressions:

• dejar algo en blanco = to leave something blank
• quedarse en blanco = to go blank mentally
• un cheque en blanco = a blank cheque/check

Yes. Voto en blanco is a standard and very common electoral term in Spain.

It refers to a ballot that is submitted without a valid choice for any candidacy. In Spain, this is different from voto nulo:

• voto en blanco = blank vote
• voto nulo = invalid / spoiled vote

That distinction matters in Spanish political and electoral language, so learners often need to treat voto en blanco as a set phrase.

Because the personal a is mainly used before specific people (and sometimes personified animals), not before things or abstract options.

Compare:

• Vio a María. = He/She saw María.
• Eligió el voto en blanco. = He/She chose the blank vote.

Here, el voto en blanco is a thing/concept, so there is no personal a.

Often, yes — depending on what you want to emphasize.

• Votó en blanco = He/She cast a blank ballot.
• Eligió el voto en blanco = He/She chose the blank-vote option.

The sentence with eligió focuses more on the decision.
The sentence with votó en blanco focuses more on the action at the ballot box.

So both are correct, but they are not identical in nuance.

Yes. A few natural alternatives are:

• Optó por el voto en blanco. = He/She opted for the blank vote.
• Se decantó por el voto en blanco. = He/She went for / came down in favour of the blank vote.
• Votó en blanco. = He/She cast a blank ballot.

Among these:

• eligió is neutral and straightforward
• optó por sounds a bit more formal
• votó en blanco is often the most direct way to describe what happened

In standard Peninsular Spanish, eligió is pronounced roughly like:

eh-lee-HYOH

More precisely:

• the g before i sounds like the Spanish throat sound, similar to the ch in Scottish loch
• the stress is on the final syllable: -gió

So the word is stressed as: e-li-GIÓ

Yes. Elegir has a stem change, and in the preterite that change appears in the third person forms:

• elegí
• elegiste
• eligió
• elegimos
• elegisteis
• eligieron

Notice:

• most forms keep e
• but third person singular and plural change e → i:
  • eligió
  • eligieron

This is a pattern shared by several verbs, such as:

• pedir → pidió, pidieron
• servir → sirvió, sirvieron
• repetir → repitió, repitieron