Today's New Law

[drplokta]

purplecthulhu is now Minion i/c Canada. Still many vacancies left.

While not allowing elections for the post of supreme dictator, they will still be permitted for lesser positions of authority. So here is a new electoral law.

In all elections, "None of the above" shall be a candidate. If "none of the above" wins the election, none of the defeated candidates, or any political parties on whose behalf they may have been officially standing, may be a candidate in the repeat election, or any other election for the same position within the next five years.

(It should go without saying that elections for a single office should be held using uniform standards and voting procedures, that all votes should produce a paper record that can be verified by the voter before casting and can be recounted as necessary, and that in the event of any doubt, all votes should be recounted as often as it takes to produce a final tally which is agreed by all parties. Sadly, it appears necessary for me to add these conditions to the new legislation.)

Comments

[kake]

Can we have an "I'm sorry, but I have no idea who to vote for" option as well?

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

What about a "They are all bastards" option?

[redbird]

"None of the above" should cover that, just as "I'm voting for him because I like his haircut," "He's got a good policy about aardvarks," and "Because he's not a Tory" all get counted as votes for the same person, without footnotes as to why you chose this candidate.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

Possibly registered abstention as well as none of the above?

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Excluding parties from a re-run is a little unfair - "none of the above" could have won because the individual candidates were crap.

Unless you're advocating a slate-based approach?

[drplokta]

Realistically, most people vote by party and would vote for a donkey if it had the right label attached -- so a rejection in favour of "None of the above" actually says more about the parties than about the candidates. It might be more reasonable to just ban the parties and let the candidates try again under different party affiliations, if they were so minded. And I think this law could encourage parties to put up candidates who were actually in touch with the local community.

[vampwillow]

NOTA is sometimes listed as an option to "Re-open nominations" ...

[andrewducker]

I stood repeatedly for Honorary President at Stirling University, each time getting enough votes to mean Re-open Nominations won. After the 4th time they removed the post :->

[green-amber.livejournal.com]

Can I have Vanuatu?

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

Failing to beat none of the above is also what causes you to loose your deposit.

I also want voting moved to the weekend or employers to be required to allow time off to vote.

I am also in favour of compulsory voting.