Topic: Election 2008
Write In None Of The Above If you're as sick and tired of having bad choices for various political offices as I am, let's make a stand together by writing in None Of The Above in at least one race on Nov. 4thby Walt Thiessen
(libertarian)
Friday, October 24, 2008
2008 is supposedly the year of change in America. Yet, as we look at this year's ballots, we see that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Many people don't even vote because they figure they're just wasting their time. Meanwhile, the major parties keep giving us candidates that are even worse (if that's possible) than what they've been giving us all along.
I can't remember the last time I walked into a voting booth and saw at least one candidate I liked for every seat being contested. Can you? Most often, I don't like hardly any of the candidates, and I'm voting for only one candidate out of a number of contested elections, leaving the other races untouched. I don't like having to do that, but I just can't bring myself to vote for someone I don't believe in.
This happens primarily because the major political parties have no incentive to give us better candidates. If their candidate is the incumbent, he or she is about a 90% lock to win. Most of us want to throw the bums out, but the alternatives we're given are so bad (in many cases) that we can't even hold our noses long enough to vote for them.
Clearly, we need better candidates.
Since the political parties aren't giving us better candidates, it's time for us to demand them. The only way to make that demand loud and clear is to add None Of The Above as a binding option in every political race contested in America. Here's how it could work.
None Of The Above would appear as the last candidate on every ballot in every race. If the voters can't stand the other candidates for that seat, they can vote for None Of The Above. If None Of The Above should win that election, then a new election has to be held with new candidates. Thus, none of the political parties could run the same candidates again in the new election. This would send a message loud-and-clear to the party bosses that they've got to give us better candidates if they want to get their candidates elected.
Obviously, we can't make None Of The Above a binding option on the ballot in 2008, but we can make it clear that we want that option for future elections! I'm asking each of you to commit to write in None Of The Above on the ballot in at least one race this year where you don't like any of the available candidates.
True, the votes won't be officially "counted," but if you didn't really like any of the other candidates in the first place, you haven't lost anything. More importantly, if hundreds of thousands of people write in None Of The Above for various offices, even the politicians and the media won't be able to ignore it.
I've set up a website for the purpose of getting people to commit to write in None Of The Above. It's a social networking website, so you can easily make the commitment yourself and then use the site to contact friends and family members and ask them to commit as well. You can also write your own articles and blog entries on the subject.
I'm not saying you should write in None Of The Above for every race. Obviously, if there is a candidate you like, you should vote for that person. For instance, if you have a favorite candidate for President, vote for that candidate, but you might not have any other favorites running for Senate, House, or some state or local race in your area. The None Of The Above option is for those races where you can't stomach any of the available candidates.
For instance, since I can't vote for Ron Paul for President this year as I would have liked to do, and since I don't like the LP's candidate, this year, I'm going to write in None Of The Above for President, and I'm looking at the other offices on my local ballot and making similar decisions in other races.
Imagine if the media gets wind of this! Let's say you have five offices on your ballot this year, and you only like one of the candidates in one of the races. If you wrote in None Of The Above in the other four races, that would be four votes for None Of The Above to be included as a binding ballot option in future elections! Now imagine tens or even hundreds of thousands of voters doing the same thing. We could end up with millions of votes for None Of The Above. What a statement that would be!
Some might protest that there isn't enough time to get people to vote for None Of The Above by election day. Nonsense! The Ron Paul money bombs got hundreds of thousands of supporters within just two weeks time, leading up to the famous 5th of November, 2007 money bomb. It's just a question of people contacting other people and spreading the word.
Make the commitment. Help support None Of The Above in 2008.
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The views expressed in this
article are those of Walt Thiessen only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Walt Thiessen is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Your 'None of the above' option in the ballots is great especially for those incumbent Senate and Representative races. Some states allow for ballot proposals directly by collecting signatures from voters. Therefore, you can start a movement in each state to register a 'none of the above' ballot initiative for the 2010 election. If passed in 2010 then by 2012 some states will actually have that in their respective ballots.
However, the problem is that since a new election is more costly, then most likely if neither the incumbent of the clallenger wins against none of the above, how are the new candidates selected? Also if 'none of the above' wins. Then the losing candidates are forbiddeen to run for office ever! i love the idea. Especially to bring incumbents down. Once they are in place, it is difficult for them to have a challenge and that's how they become career politicians.
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Another great idea is to pass an amendment to the constitution through a ballot initiave that bypasses Congress and the President to have term limits for Senators and Representatives. No one should be a Senator for more than 2 terms (Thats 12 years!). no wait! that is too long. Maybe the term limit for the Setators should be only 1 term (total 6 years). Then the term limit for Representative will be two (total: 4 years). The 'none of the above' is easier to implement than the consttutional amendment because each state can implement it in its election laws, bypasing federal laws, and although not all states will have it, some will. The implications on the Presidential Race could be interesting and those who don't want any of the candidates can have their 'votes' counted.
Wouldn't a Ron Paul write-in be as effective as a NOTA write-in (as well as an indication of what type of candidate one does want)? Likely, neither vote will be counted; almost certainly, neither will be reported.
As that tactic is popular with a much of our readership, I would have preferred that you deal with it.
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2008-10-24 11:12:58
As for a new election being expensive, I'd counter that it's a whole lot less expensive than electing yet another big government Republicrat.
As for writing in Ron Paul...I'm fine with that, but I think there's a bigger statement to be made in writing in None Of The Above, since there are going to be a lot more voters interested in writing in NOTA than Ron. Therefore, it will make a bigger impact.
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2008-10-24 11:27:41
One more note about Ron Paul....there's nothing to prevent you from writing him in for President and writing in None Of The Above in a Senatorial or House race. That would still send the appropriate message.
Here's an interesting item. The Galveston Daily News is recommending a NOTA vote in one Congressional election:
None of the above, U.S. House of Representatives, District 14. Paul is unopposed in District 14 and will return to Washington. But given Paul’s “no” votes on hurricane relief and other issues critical to Galveston County, we recommend that voters skip his spot on the ballot."
Posted By: Of The Above None
Date: 2008-11-05 02:24:53
My name is Of The Above None (changed by deed poll). I seem to have been an inadvertant candidate in your Presidential election.
In the last Australian Federal election in the electorate of Gilmore, I appeared on the ballot paper as NONE, Of The Above in an effort to highlight the obvious ie that there is more wisdom than that which emanates from the two major parties (see http://results.aec.gov.au/13745/Website/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-13745-120.htm).
Thanks for the blog and all your efforts. How many votes did I get?
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