Nevada's 'none of these candidates' makes strong showing

[NVMojo]

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Nevada's unique "none of these candidates" option didn't outpoll any of Tuesday's statewide race winners, but still managed to be the choice of tens of thousands of voters in many races.

snip....

The "none of these candidates" option was approved by the 1975 Legislature as a way for voters to express dissatisfaction with candidates in statewide races.

"None" can't actually win a race, but did come in first in primary congressional contests in 1976 and 1978. It also finished ahead of both George Bush and Edward Kennedy in Nevada's 1980 presidential primaries. "None" has never finished first in a general election contest.

Periodic attempts since 1975 to get rid of "None" have failed. No other state has such a voting option.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/nov/08/110810273.html

[liberalpragmatist]

1. I'm actually in favor of requiring everyone to vote

But having a "none of these candidates" or "not voting" option for each position.

[rooboy]

3. In Australia we have compulsory voting...

with a pencil and paper ballot system. If you want to choose 'none of the above', you simply make your vote 'informal' by scribbling on the ballot paper and not returning a valid vote.

But I agree with compulsory voting - it would eliminate more than 80% of the problems with the US system.

[lakemonster11]

2. My dad was just saying

that paper ballots need to have this option so that crooked poll workers can't fill in votes for races the voter intentionally left blank.

[w4rma]

4. Good point. (nt)