The Ninth Circuit will hear Townley v State of Nevada, 12-16881, on Monday, March 11, at 9:30 a.m. The panel will be Judge John Noonan (a Reagan appointee), Raymond Fisher (Clinton), and Jacqueline Nguyen (Obama). The issue is whether Nevada’s law placing “None of these candidates” on all primary and general election ballots for statewide office violates the Constitution. The individuals who filed the lawsuit argue that voters who vote for “None” are being discriminated against, because their votes have no effect.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
I sure hope NOTC gets struck down – it’s a good idea in theory, but in practice messes up election results and is a waste of a vote.
Same here, the Independent American Party of Nevada supports striking down NOTC from the ballot; it is anti-third party.
I disagree. If no candidate (or party) for an elective office fails to win a majority, they should not be elected. As I read the justification for this suit, interests are arguing that voters should not have the right to vote the way they want to because of some alleged harm that doing so is causing those voters and therefore they should be compelled to vote in some other way. What patronizing nonsense! After their recent election, Italians may well find themselves without a government. If that happens, we’ll see if that country is worse off because of that.
MORON voters obviously should have the right in a MORON regime to a vote which has NO STUNT effect ??? Duh.
ONE more part of the New Age of MORON stuff ???
Even if the people who file the lawsuit win, the legislature could still save “None” by amending the law and saying if “none” gets the most votes in a primary, then that party has not nominated anyone; and if “none” gets the most votes in a general election, the office is vacant. But probably the Nevada legislature would not do that.
Arthur, that kind of reasoning is anti-third party and anti-democratic. If voters don’t like any of the candidates on a ballot, then they can exercise their displeasure by not voting in that race; NOTA is a simpleton choice to have on the ballot that only empowers the major parties.
Would all NOTC’s remain independent nationwide, or would they band into a third party?
Cody, I don’t follow you. In my mind, someone voting for NOTA is expressing a sentiment similar to when you don’t vote for a candidate in Approval Voting except you’re saying that with regard to ALL of the candidates for an office. And I don’t see how it would be anti-democratic to vote for None of them if all the candidates running for an office were incompetent or criminals. It sounds more like a democratic safeguard to me.
Cody, the simpleton choice is not to vote by not knowing the candidates or the issues. Why should voters vote for the IAP or the LP simply because they don’t like the Repubs and Dems. Many voters will vote 3rd party because they hate the major parties, but some people just won’t vote or write in a candidate like Mickey Mouse. If third parties did a better job at getting the message and the candidate out there, we probably wouldn’t need things like NOTA, but it’s another option for voters. In many presidential primaries they have something like NOTA, and I do like to see how many voters dislike their potential nominee. Plus third parties don’t fill the ballot, so in many cases, the two main parties have no opposition or there is just one candidate that has filed. If NOTA were to have some power, then voters could knock off some of these candidates by voting NOTA. But we do need more strong 3rd party candidates running for liberty.