Quote:
Originally Posted by vienna
A long while back, current California Governor Jerry Brown espoused the idea voters should have the choice of "None of the above" in primary nominating elections and was actually able to get the option on the ballot for a single election. I recall, the day after the election, the tally showed "None of the above" had the most votes; the newspaper headlines read "Jerry Brown's Nobody Beats Everybody"...
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What you are referring to is called a "null vote" i.e. a vote cast but not for any candidate. Null voting is a valid vote and can be important.
The political parties pay attention to the number of Null Votes. The number of ballots cast and the totals of the votes are public information and the political parties pull these numbers after the election. Everyone also has access to the total number of registered voters. These pieces of information can give political parties some significant information.
Someone who does not vote is simply indicating that they don't care about the election
Someone casting a Null vote is indicating that they do care but don't like any of the candidates.
There is a big difference between the two. The political parties are very interested in getting the second type of citizen on their side.
The person who does not care about the election will probably continue not to care regardless of what the parties do. They are going to spend a little time/money getting the word out, but most of their attention is going to be on the second -- a person who cares enough about the election to come to the polls but does not vote for any candidate.
Lets look at some examples from a primary
Example 1.
5000 registered voters in precinct A
Candidate A - 1200 votes
Candidate B - 1100 Votes
46% voter turnout close race. Most people don't care either way
Example 2
5000 registered voters in precinct A
Candidate A - 1200 votes
Candidate B - 1100 Votes
Null/under vote - 1500
76% voter turnout and the majority did not want either candidate
This is important information to the political parties.
The first example illustrates voter apathy
The second example illustrates candidate apathy
This is why it bothers me when people tell me that they don't vote because they don't like either candidate or, worse, their vote won't matter.
If you don't like the candidates, let the parties know via the Null vote. It is a powerful tool.
In the last election, we had write in votes for this one office. The majority of the write in votes were for some variation of "none of the above". This is another way of casting a null vote.
Null votes won't affect the election they are cast in. With few exceptions, elections in the US are based on a plurality of votes and not a majority of votes.
Not voting means you don't care
Null voting means that you do care
Political parties know this.