Vote "None of the above."?

I had a thought today about elections. I thought, what if we installed a "None of the above." button on all election machines? And if the total for any candidate was not a clear 'majority', we had another go at it? Turns out I was not the first person with that idea. In Google image search for the term NOTA, there are hundreds of pictures - many involving a voting booth or a checkbox. I used a non-political one here. On further search, Wikipedia turned up the following:

None of the Above (NOTA) or 'against all options', is an option in some jurisdictions and organizations, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of all of the candidates in a voting system. It is based on the principle that consent requires the ability to withhold consent in an election, just as they can by voting 'no' on ballot questions.

Entities that include "None of the Above" on ballots as standard procedure include Greece (λευκό), the U.S. state of Nevada, Ukraine (Проти всіх), Spain (voto en blanco), France (vote blanc), Colombia (voto en blanco), the United States Libertarian Party and the Green Party. Russia had such an option on its ballots (Против всех) until it was abolished in 2006.

At first it may seem a negative thought but consider the option that if no candidate had a majority that would signify a positive change for the people - to say they were unhappy with the system and wanted it changed - to be happier, hopefully. Now unfortunately, in the United States 2008 presidential election turnout was only 63%. However, in Australia, which has compulsory voting, and Malta, participation reaches 95%.

So there are two ideas to consider:

1) Institute a 'NONA' option into all national elections

2) Require mandatory voting 

This would make voting as required as filling out a tax return and mean that one's vote was as important as one's money. It would also provide a research method by which we could gauge how happy the people were with the way their money was being spent. I'm sure Larry Page could figure out an algorithm for that.

D a v i d E v e r i t t - C a r l s o n

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