Ballot Paper - None of the Above (NOTA)

[throwaway4372]

We've had conversations previously about voting, with people saying they'd like a "none of the above" option. Without this option you either don't vote at all (in which case nobody knows what you think) or you spoil the ballot paper (which makes you look incompetent). I think there's a lot of people who would want to make use of this option in the upcoming election, and if we're going to get the option included we have to make a fuss about it now.

I was planning on making a petition, but someone beat me to it, so sign it if you agree:

Archived Petition: Implement "None of the above" on ballots in all United Kingdom elections #NOTAUK

I urge the UK Government to permanently adopt "None of the above" on all ballots starting with the next general election, to enhance democratic choice and allow voters to express dissatisfaction. If NOTA wins most votes, consider rerunning the election, possibly with initial candidates disqualified.

petition.parliament.uk

I searched the forum for this topic, there was no a dedicated thread for it, it was mentioned within in other election threads (avoiding necro). So let this thread be a discussion about the topic which can continue past the next general election and for as long as is necessary.

None of the above - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Removed User 345456]

Signed! We should be allowed to show dissatisaction versus just choosing the least **** one of the selection!

 

[Participant]

Spoiling the paper is what this is for already isn't it, why does it translate to 'this person is incompetent'?

 

[throwaway4372]

Spoiling the paper is what this is for already isn't it, why does it translate to 'this person is incompetent'?

because you can't tell if they:
- spoilt it deliberately
- got confused
- marked it in some invalid way which couldn't be interpreted
- thought it was funny to draw a penis
it all ends up in the same stat.

 

[Armageus]

Signed, although can't see it gaining enough traction to do much.

Spoiling the paper is what this is for already isn't it

Because clearly there are some spoilt papers where people genuinely made a mistake

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Spoiling the paper is what this is for already isn't it, why does it translate to 'this person is incompetent'?

It just makes you look stupid/ignorant/dumb? At the very least it doesn't register any opinion other than indifference you're certainly not making any kind of meaningful statement.

 

[200sols]

These petitions are useless, even if you get millions of people signing they will give you a 2 second answer and move on.

 

[Uther]

Voting should be compulsory with a none of the above box, maybe things would prove (yeah right)

 

[hood1971]

This should be an option, along with compulsory voting.

 

[Participant]

This should be an option, along with compulsory voting.

Compulsory voting doesn't sound very free world.

 

[nightwish]

Without a meaningful path forward if the NOTA option wins, this is pointless. Re-running an election with different candidates, as the petition suggests, is a non-trivial undertaking and probably completely unfeasible at a national scale. And would it change anything? It would certainly be an extremely expensive and drawn-out affair.

Edt: The usual parties would just put up a different candidate, in most cases indistinguishable from the previous one. Unless you want to start banning entire parties, which is highly undemocratic and also... who would actually be left to vote for? One of the reasons why these petitions fail to gain traction is the total failure to consider the full consequences.

 

[Freakbro]

Compulsory voting doesn't sound very free world.

Unless you're a bat**** crazy extreme libertarian, then there are a lot of rules that already curtail our absolute freedoms - that's the price you pay to be part of society. I don't think making voting compulsary would be an overly onerous impingement of your liberties.

 

[hood1971]

Compulsory voting doesn't sound very free world.

We have to pay tax, obey sometimes arbitrary speed laws, complete census forms etc. You get rights in return for responsibilities, most of which you never sign up to.

 

[Participant]

Unless you're a bat**** crazy extreme libertarian, then there are a lot of rules that already curtail our absolute freedoms - that's the price you pay to be part of society. I don't think making voting compulsary would be an overly onerous impingement of your liberties.

Lots of other rules curtailing freedom isn't a reason to create another one, and not just any one - forcing people to vote is a step way too far.

 

[throwaway4372]

who would actually be left to vote for?

I've previously suggested a party with one policy: "to change to PR then immediately hold a GE". I think this party would do well.
It also happens to be a good option to break the deadlock in the scenario you described.
So potentially it's a way of getting PR (via NOTA), knowing that Cons/Lab will never give us PR otherwise.

 

[arknor]

These petitions are useless, even if you get millions of people signing they will give you a 2 second answer and move on.

Havent they refused to debate these petitions in the past, even whent hey had enough numbers that it should be discussed in parliament ?

I'm sure there was one for cannabis or something and they just totally ignored it with some guff message

 

[hood1971]

Lots of other rules curtailing freedom isn't a reason to create another one, and not just any one - forcing people to vote is a step way too far.

Curtailing of freedom? Takes 15 minutes every 4/5 years. All the new anti protest laws are a curtailing of freedom, rather than a slight annoyance that voting would entail.

 

[Freakbro]

Lots of other rules curtailing freedom isn't a reason to create another one

Very true and just because we have other restrictions, they wouldn't be the reason to create this one, it has it's own reasons.

, and not just any one - forcing people to vote is a step way too far.

Sure, there are arguments for and against and if you're against then that's fine, I feel you just have have to come up with a better reason than "muh liberties"

Arguments for are :

Elections become more equal, as social disparities in turnout are no longer numerically significant.

We all know non-voting is not equally distributed along social and class demographics, which can compound skewed political intentions as they will mainly pander to the people who do vote - obviously! This in turn entrenches political parties to a narrower representation of the country and leads to further disenfranchisement of other portions of society, who feel politics becomes even less relevant to themselves.

It incentivises people to engage in the political process, which again, is only beneficial to the overall state of democracy as being representative of the country as a whole.

Look at all the apathy, resentment and disenfranchisation that goes on now with our FPTP system and the current system. If you had compulsary voting, and a "NOTA" option, at least we would get a truer reflection of the populations thoughts on the current political system and parties would start to try and garner the votes of the NOTA crowd.

All this for the small price of having to vote every now and then. It's a non-issue to me <shrug>

 

[Stu999]

How does drawing a big willy on my ballot paper make me look incompetent?

Voting should be compulsory with a none of the above box, maybe things would prove (yeah right)

Maybe they could throw the non-voters in prison with all the lack of prison space we have due to incompetent governments that we don't want to vote for?

 

[Tuppy_Glossop]

How does drawing a big willy on my ballot paper make me look incompetent?

And anyway, who cares what some random do-gooder vote-counter thinks of the artist?