Adsense

Thursday, October 4, 2012

None of the Above option on Election Ballots

So with the presidential elections coming up, we have a rather big decision to make: Romney or Obama. Personally, I think they both suck ass: Romney is a tool and Obama is a puppet! I rather not vote for any of them, but still cast a vote to show I do care about this. I was planning on doing a write-in vote, but I found out some states have (or... had as I now found) an option for "None of the Above."

The way None of the Above works, as www.noneoftheabove-tn.org explains it, is:
Every election in the state of Tennessee should include the ballot option of, "None Of The Above". If NOTA receives the most votes a special election would then be arranged to have another go at it. If NOTA doesn't win -- it still serves as a valuable gauge of voter opinion.

A candidate who wins an election including a NOTA option has the right to genuinely claim victory. This should appeal to honest public servants. It would give them a credibility that many of them don't currently enjoy.

All legitimate consent requires the ability to withhold consent, and the legitimate consent of voters requires that voters be able to withhold consent to elections to office.
 Personally, I think Tennessee has the right idea! We need something like this on the Presidential elections to show our dissatisfaction with candidates. Unfortunately, in places like Nevada who had the same option, Judges struck it off the ballot. According to The National Journal, the judge ruled the following:
U.S. District Judge Robert Jones determined the law was unconstitutional because “none” votes don’t count in final tallies. He refused to grant a stay while the ruling, applies to both state and federal elections, is being appealed.
Honestly, this just makes me want to use the write in feature and put in "None of the Above." Now, I'm not here to convince anyone to NOT vote for Obama or Romney if you want one or the other, I am just saying I dislike them both. But if you don't like either of them either, I think we should all just write in a vote of None of the Above or if that doesn't work, some other name, like Roseanne Barr (Who I think would make an amusing president, even if it's a bad idea) or Mickey Mouse or some other name. I know it SEEMS useless, but I see it as a way of showing the world that I don't like either candidates. If enough people actually did do this, results could show. I just wish I could get the word out there a little better so more confused or unhappy voters would choose such an option.

No comments:

Post a Comment