"None of the above" (NOTA), or none for short, also known as "against all" or a "scratch" vote, is a

ballot A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16t ...

option in some

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Jur ...

s or

organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

s, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of the candidates in a

voting system An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...

. It is based on the principle that

consent Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions as used in such fields as the law, medicine, research, and sexual relationships. Consent as und ...

requires the ability to withhold consent in an election, just as they can by voting "No" on ballot questions. It must be contrasted with "

abstention Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with ...

", in which a voter does not cast a ballot. Entities that include "None of the Above" on ballots as standard procedure include

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

("None of the above"),

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

(, "empty box"),

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

(, white), the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

(

None of These Candidates "None of These Candidates" is a voting option in Nevada for all statewide and presidential and vice-presidential election ballots. This option is listed along with the names of individuals running for the position and is often described as "none ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

(, "against all"),

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

(, "white vote"),

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

, and

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

().

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

had such an option on its ballots (, "against all") until it was abolished in 2006.

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

introduced this option (, "no vote") in 2008. Pakistan introduced this option on ballot papers for the 2013 Pakistan elections, but the

Election Commission of Pakistan The Election Commission of Pakistan ( ur, ; ECP) is an independent, autonomous, permanent and constitutionally established federal body responsible for organizing and conducting elections to the national parliament, provincial legislatures, l ...

later rejected it. Beginning with the 2016 presidential election, and 2017 parliamentary one,

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

introduced a 'none of the above' option, which received in the presidential elections 5.59% of the vote in the first round and 4.47% in the run-off. It was also used in the 2019 mayoral election of Sofia. When "none of the above" is listed on a ballot, there is the possibility of NOTA receiving a

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Websterplurality of the vote, and so "winning" the election. In such a case, a variety of formal procedures may be invoked, including having the office remain vacant, having the office filled by appointment, re-opening

nomination Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In the ...

s, or holding another election (in a body operating under

parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or t ...

), or it may have no effect, as in India and the US state of Nevada, where the next highest total wins regardless.

Advantages and disadvantages of NOTA

The advantages of a NOTA option include support for freedom of expression. Individuals possess the formal right to reject all candidates, and express that none are sufficient for democratic

self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...

. NOTA may also increase voter turnout by allowing citizens to vote for an option contrary to existing options, rather than decline to participate entirely. Accordingly, movements in the NOTA vote share indicate movements in public opinion. Disadvantages of a NOTA option include the possibility that it can serve as a

spoiler Spoiler is a security vulnerability on modern computer central processing units that use speculative execution. It exploits side-effects of speculative execution to improve the efficiency of Rowhammer and other related memory and cache attacks. Ac ...

: vote splitting may cause the defeat of the least-disliked candidate to a more-disliked opponent. And as with all additional options on a ballot, there are likely to be administrative costs in processing votes, and voters who select NOTA without a full understanding of all alternatives. Perhaps most important is the potential for fallout should NOTA "win" an election, depending on the method of resolution. Delays may increase, democratic legitimacy may fall, an important office may remain vacant, or the electorate may end up with an office-holder worse than previous candidates.

Colombia

, a NOTA option in the ballots has been recognized by the

Constitutional Court of Colombia The Constitutional Court of Colombia ( es, Corte Constitucional de Colombia) is the supreme constitutional court of Colombia. Part of the Judiciary, it is the final appellate court for matters involving interpretation of the Constitution with ...

by upholding a political reform law (Law 1475 of 2011), declaring that a None of the Above vote is "a political expression of dissent, abstention or inconformity with political effects" and also adding that "a None of the Above vote constitutes a valuable expression of dissent through which the electorate's will protection can be promoted. As such, the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

grants it a decisive importance in the election of uni-personal offices and public corporations". The NOTA option has been present in ballots since at least 1991; in fact legislative act 01 of 2009 instructs what should happen if NOTA would "win" an election. In accordance with the aforementioned Act, if an election for a public corporation (such as Congress, Assemblies or Councils), Governor, Mayor or the first round of the presidential elections would end with None of the Above as the most selected option, the election must be repeated a single time with new candidates (for unipersonal offices, like president, governor or mayor) and for public corporations, the election must be repeated with only the lists which had achieved the threshold for seats. If this new election would again return None of the Above as "winner", the election would not be repeated. In the regional elections of 2011 for the municipality of

Bello, Antioquia Bello (, ) is a town and municipality in Antioquia Department, Colombia and is a suburb of Medellín, the department capital. Bello is part of The Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley in the department of Antioquia. It is bordered on the north ...

, 56.7% of voters picked None of the Above, defeating the uncontested candidate and prompting the election for Mayor to be repeated.

Soviet Union

In the 1990 elections that led to the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, the Soviet version of "none of above" led to new elections with new candidates in 200 races of the 1,500-seat Congress of People's Deputies. More than 100 incumbents representing the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

were defeated in the run-off, leading

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

to later say the "none of the above" option "helped convince the people they had real power even in a rigged election, and tplayed a role in building true democracy."

Spain

Blank ballot

Owing to the Spanish voting regulations (), the blank ballot is recognized as 'none of the above' () but has very little chance to influence the distribution of seats within a democratic election. It is mostly considered as a statistical indicator of candidatures' disapproval. The blank ballots only increase the number of valid votes, raising the threshold of votes (3% and 5% depending on the election) which every political party has to overcome to be fully considered. The parties over the threshold get their seats according to the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest- ...

Blank seats ()

Since 1999, several political parties have arisen in order to make visible the 'none of the above' option in the parliaments and force empty seats. "Blank Seats" ran for the Congress and Senate elections of 20 November 2011. Its programme is to leave empty the corresponding assigned seats by not taking full possession of their duties as congressperson, senator, etc. According to law, the seat remains assigned to the elected candidate until the possession act takes place, the elected candidate explicitly refuses or new elections are called. In this way, the political party and its candidates stay free from obligations and are not entitled to receive any money from the public funding scheme for politics. By voting such option at the local elections in May 2011, the citizens of the villages of

Gironella Gironella is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Berguedà in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the left bank of the Llobregat river to the south of Berga. The local economy is traditionally based on cotton spinning and textile manufacture ...

(Barcelona) and

Foixà Foixà is a village and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the comarques, comarca (county) of the Baix Empordà. Geography The rural village of Foixà stretches from the right bank to the lower basin of the Ter (river). It is divided into tw ...

(Girona) were able to reduce the number of politicians in their councils by one and two respectively. Overall, citizenship supported Blank Seats at different municipalities, including

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, with 15,582 votes (averaging 1.71% of valid votes). The (

Citizens for Blank Votes Citizens for Blank Votes ( es, Ciudadanos En Blanco) is a Spanish political party. In Spanish electoral law, a distinction is made between valid votes, blank votes () and null votes. Blank votes are interpreted as correctly executed votes for "no ...

) party aims to give blank ballots the meaning of representing empty seats if the votes indicate so as for any other party, disbanding the party when such law would be approved.

United States

The origins of the ballot option "None of the Above" in the United States can be traced to when the State of

adopted "

" as a ballot option in 1976. In 1998 in California, citizen proponents of Proposition 23, titled the "None of the Above Act", qualified a new State ballot initiative through circulated petitions submitted to the Secretary of State, but the measure was defeated in the March 2000 general election 64% to 36%. Were it to be passed by the voters, it was meant to require this new ballot option for all state and federal elective offices, exempting only local judicial races; in determining official election results, the "none of the above" voter tally would be discarded in favor of the candidate with the greatest number of votes. No similar options were known to have been permitted, much less approved, on any other state levels, least of all the federal level, as of 2022.

India

The

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

told the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

in 2009 that it wished to offer the voter a "none of the above" option on ballots, which the government had generally opposed. The

People's Union for Civil Liberties People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) is a human rights body formed in India in 1976 by Jayaprakash Narayan, as the People's Union for Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights (PUCLDR). Background Indian emergency Jayaprakash Narayan was a G ...

, a

non-governmental organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

, filed a

public-interest litigation Public interest law refers to legal practices undertaken to help poor, marginalized, or under-represented people, or to effect change in social policies in the public interest, on 'not for profit' terms (pro bono, ''pro bono publico''), often in th ...

statement in support of this. On 27 September 2013, the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

ruled that the right to register a "none of the above" vote in elections should apply, and ordered the Election Commission to provide such a button in the electronic

voting machine A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defin ...

s, noting that it would increase participation. The Election Commission also clarified that even though votes cast as NOTA are counted, they are considered as invalid votes so they will not change the outcome of the election process. They are not taken into account for calculating the total valid votes and will not be considered for determining the forfeiture of deposit. In the 2014 general election, NOTA polled 1.1% of the votes, counting to over 6,000,000. The specific symbol for NOTA, a ballot paper with a black cross across it, was introduced on 18 September 2015. The symbol is designed by

National Institute of Design The National Institutes of Design (NIDs) are a group of autonomous public design universities in India, with the primary institute, founded in 1961, in Ahmedabad, with extension campuses in Gandhinagar and Bengaluru. The other NIDs are locat ...

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

Indonesia

The Indonesian Law 10 of 2016 regulates local elections, and includes provisions for elections in which there is only one candidate. In such cases, the candidate contests the election against a NOTA option (commonly referred to as ''kotak kosong''/empty box), and is declared the winner if they manage to secure a majority of the valid votes. Otherwise, the election will be postponed to the next occurrence; the government of Indonesia appoints an acting office holder until the new election, in which the losing candidate is eligible to stand again. There were 3 uncontested seats in the 2015 local elections, nine in the 2017 local elections, and at least 13 in the 2018 local elections (including the mayoral elections for

Tangerang Tangerang (Sundanese: , ) is a city in the province of Banten, Indonesia. Located on the western border of Jakarta, it is the third largest urban centre in the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area after Jakarta and Bekasi; the sixth largest city pro ...

and

Makassar Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Med ...

). In the 2018 election for mayor of Makassar, the NOTA option received over 300,000 votes, 35,000 more than the sole candidate, forcing a repeat election in 2020.

United Kingdom

UK electoral counting procedures require that all votes be counted and announced, including 'rejected' votes. 'Rejected votes' are classified into four categories,

protest vote A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or "none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms a ...

s are recorded with others rejected as 'voter's intention uncertain'.

NOTA UK

NOTA UK is a voluntary organisation set up in 2010 to campaign for a formal None Of The Above (NOTA) option to be added to ballot papers for all future UK elections. It has made numerous written evidence submissions to the parliamentary

Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee The Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee was a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015. Remit The committee was created in response to changes to the machinery of governm ...

(PCRC) making the case for NOTA 'with teeth', i.e. formalised consequences for the election result in the event of a NOTA 'win' (as opposed to 'faux' NOTA, whereby the next placed candidate takes office anyway as happens in India and elsewhere). As a result of these representations, the PCRC explicitly recommended in its final report on 'voter engagement', published in February 2015, that the next UK government should hold a public consultation before May 2016 solely on inclusion of NOTA on UK ballot papers. This in turn has led to increased support for and awareness of NOTA UK's campaign and its founder, recording artist and music producer

Jamie Stanley Jamie is a unisex name. It is a diminutive form of James (name), James or, more rarely, other names. It is also given as a name in its own right. People Female * Jamie Anne Allman (born 1977), American actress * Jamie Babbit (born 1970), Americ ...

(known as Mailman), being asked to give a number of media interviews. No public consultation materialised as the incoming Conservative majority government scrapped the PCRC, effectively disregarding all of its recommendations. Since 2015, in part thanks to NOTA UK's lobbying, it has been a policy of the

Green Party of England and Wales The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; cy, Plaid Werdd Cymru a Lloegr, kw, Party Gwer Pow an Sowson ha Kembra, often simply the Green Party or Greens) is a green, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla ...

to get a form of NOTA (RON – Re-Open Nominations) on UK ballot papers. In the run-up to the 2017 UK general election, NOTA UK wrote to the Green party suggesting that they should reword the policy so that, instead of RON, it refers specifically to the more self-explanatory NOTA, and that they should also place the policy centre stage in their next manifesto.

Above and Beyond Party

The Above and Beyond Party was founded in 2015 and fielded eight candidates in the 2015 general election, none of whom were elected. Their sole stated policy was to introduce a "none of the above" option on all UK ballot papers. The party's logo is based on the West African Adinkra symbol "Aya", "derived from a fern tree which famously grows in difficult-to-survive places", and a symbol of resilience. Critics pointed out that their website and Facebook page at the time indicated that they had policy ideas and a political agenda beyond the single issue of NOTA and appeared to be jumping on the bandwagon of other NOTA campaigns.

Inception and officers

The party registered with the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

on 18 March 2015. The Electoral Commission listed the party leader, nominating officer and campaigns officer as Mark Flanagan and the treasurer was Karen Stanley. The party chairman was Michael Ross. The party was de-registered by the Electoral Commission on 3 November 2016.

Electoral history

Above and Beyond fielded four candidates in the 2015 general election. The candidates stood in Clwyd West, Cheadle,

Sheffield Central Sheffield Central is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Paul Blomfield, a member of the Labour Party. Boundaries ;First creation 1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Sheffield wards of S ...

and

Leeds North West Leeds North West is a constituency in the City of Leeds which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Alex Sobel, of Labour Co-op. Boundaries 1950–1955: The County Borough of Leeds wards of Far He ...

. In Sheffield Hallam the party endorsed Carlton Reeve, an independent candidate. No Above and Beyond candidate received 5% or more of the votes cast, therefore all lost their deposit.

Finance

The party raised funds partially through "AboveBeyond" music nights.

No Candidate Deserves My Vote! party

No Candidate Deserves My Vote! No Candidate Deserves My Vote! (often abbreviated NCDMV!; in Welsh ') was a registered political party of the United Kingdom. The party's core policies were to bring about electoral reform by putting a none of the above option onto every ballot pa ...

was registered as a political party with the UK Electoral Commission on 23 November 2000. The No Candidate Deserves My Vote party's single objective is to introduce a bill to Parliament to have a "none of the above" option added to every local and general election ballot paper of the future. They feel this will allow the UK electorate to exercise their democratic right to vote to say that none of the parties currently represents them, which will encourage their democratic responsibility to turn out to vote. If a candidate wins an election it is the intention to stay as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

until the change in the law is enacted. Only then will the candidate step down and the party be disbanded. It is the intention of the party that, if a NOTA gains the majority vote, it should cause an automatic

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

, the idea being that the majority will have given a

vote of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

in the candidates. If the same candidates stand under the same policies, then the electorate simply votes NOTA until the candidates change their policies to something that the electorate can vote for. In 2010, Stephen Phillips of

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

stood in the

UK general election This is a list of United Kingdom general elections (elections for the UK House of Commons) since the first in 1802. The members of the 1801–1802 Parliament had been elected to the former Parliament of Great Britain and Parliament of Ireland, ...

on behalf of No Candidate Deserves My Vote. Phillips received 327 votes, or 0.7% of the vote, placing 7th out of 9 candidates.

NOTA party

The NOTA Party, in recent years also known as Notavote, was registered as a political party with the UK Electoral Commission on 2 March 2009. It was the intention of the NOTA party to field candidates in every UK parliamentary constituency. The respective NOTA candidates would not have continued in office had they received the most votes; this was merely a mechanism to simulate the recording of a formal NOTA vote. The party was registered as 'NOTA' and not 'None of the Above' as the latter is a prohibited expression regarding registration as a party name. A subsequent attempt to re-register the NOTA party in 2014 was blocked by the Electoral Commission on the grounds that the acronym 'NOTA' is as good as the phrase 'None of the Above', the logic being that it would confuse voters into thinking it is possible to cast a formal vote for 'None of the Above' when they would in fact just be voting for another party, albeit one standing on a single issue NOTA platform.

Zero, None Of the Above

None Of The Above Zero was a candidate at the 2010 general election in Filton and Bradley Stoke. Previously known as Eric Mutch, he changed his name by deed poll to stand under that name. As candidates are listed by surname first he appeared on the ballot paper as "Zero, None Of The Above", in effect giving voters a "none of the above" option since had he been elected he would have resigned immediately. He came last with 172 votes.

Others

In the British parliamentary elections of 2010, a former boxer changed his name by

deed poll A deed poll (plural: deeds poll) is a legal document binding on a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an intention or create an obligation. It is a deed, and not a contract because it binds only one party (law), party. Et ...

from Terry Marsh to "None Of The Above X", in order to run as a parliamentary candidate under that name in the constituency of South Basildon and East Thurrock. Claiming that he will not take the seat if he wins, he told BBC Essex: "I don't take it for one moment that it would be a vote for me. ... I'm doing what I think the Electoral Commission should be doing and what should be on every ballot paper in any electoral process." BBC News reported that, while the Registration of Political Parties (Prohibited Words and Expressions) (Amendment) Order 2005 stipulates that no political party can be registered in the UK under the name "None of the Above", there is no legislation against a person changing their name by deed poll and appearing on the ballot paper as "None Of the Above". In the event he polled 0.3% of the vote, the lowest of any candidate standing. * Another individual changed his name by deed poll to "None Of The Above" in order to stand as a candidate in

Chingford and Woodford Green Chingford and Woodford Green is a constituency in North East London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Sir Iain Duncan Smith of the Conservative Party since its creation in 1997. Constituency profile The seat covers th ...

in 2010. With the surname ''Above'', he was listed first on the ballot paper in alphabetical order, with all the other candidates listed below. * The

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

Anarchists group has run a campaign urging people to "Vote Nobody" since 2008 and many other

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

groups worldwide have promoted similar slogans. * The Landless Peasant Party, which advocates the ownership of land by those who live on it and the replacement of income tax by a flat land tax, and whose leader Derek Jackson gained publicity for standing against then- Prime Minister Gordon Brown in his home constituency in the 2010 elections, include a pledge to add a "None of the above" option to the ballot in all UK elections.

Canada

No electoral jurisdiction in Canada formally lists "none of the above" as a ballot option. However, in some provincial elections it is effectively possible to vote for "none of the above", by attending the polling station and formally "declining to vote". These declined votes are counted and become part of the electoral record. A businessman in Prince George,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

ran in the 1997 federal election in the district of

Prince George—Bulkley Valley Prince George—Bulkley Valley was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1979 to 2004. Geography This was a large, rural riding in northern B.C. History This ...

under the name Zznoneoff, Thea Bove (Thea Bove Zznoneoff); since ballots listed candidates alphabetically by surname, he appeared at the bottom. He came sixth of seven candidates with 0.977 percent of votes cast. A resident of

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, formerly known as Sheldon Bergson, had legally changed his name to "

Above Znoneofthe Above Znoneofthe (; born 28 June 1969) is a Canadian politician and perennial candidate. He changed his name to "Above Znoneofthe" with a silent "Z" so that his name would be placed last on alphabetical ballots (hence reflecting the idea of voting ...

", and had registered under that name as a candidate in several provincial and federal

s, most recently the

Markham—Thornhill Markham—Thornhill is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2015. It encompasses a portion of Ontario previously included in the electoral districts of Markham—Un ...

by-election of 3 March 2017. His name order was chosen so that his name would always appear at the bottom of the ballot as "Znoneofthe, Above", although this only works federally as provincial election ballots do not list the candidates in surname order. In Ontario, the None of the Above Party of Ontario is a registered political party, although its stated mandate is for its candidates to serve in the legislature as

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

representatives who reflect the views and interests of their constituents, rather than simply as a "reject all of the candidates" placeholder.

Norway

The Norwegian election regulation makes it mandatory to present voters with blank ballots in addition to all of the approved parties and election lists. In the parliamentary election of 2013, 12,874 votes, which is 0.45% of the total votes given, were blank.

None of the Above candidates and parties in other countries

* In

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

, None of the above (Ниједан од понуђених одговора, НОПО) is a parliamentary political party, legally formed in 2010, which was mostly popularized on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and less so on other social networking websites. In

2012 Serbian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 6 May 2012 to elect members of the National Assembly, and were held simultaneously with provincial, local, and presidential elections. Background The 2008 parliamentary elections resulted in the f ...

they received 22,905 votes, and thus won one seat in the

National Assembly of Serbia The National Assembly ( sr-cyr, Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, ) is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are proportionally elected to four-year terms by secret ballot. The as ...

. * Geoff Richardson changed his full name to "Of The Above None" and stood as an independent for the seat of Gilmore at the

2007 Australian federal election The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The election featured a 39-day campaign, with 13.6& ...

. His name appeared as NONE, Of the Above on the ballot. * In

2010 Ukrainian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 17 January 2010. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a run-off election was held between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych on 7 February. On 14 F ...

, a candidate Vasiliy Humeniuk changed his name to Vasily Protyvsih (Vasily Against-all). "Against all candidates" is the name of the "none of the above" vote used in Russia and Ukraine.CEC registers two more candidates for Ukraine's president
,

Interfax-Ukraine The Interfax-Ukraine ( uk, Інтерфакс-Україна) is a Kyiv-based Ukraine, Ukrainian independent news agency founded in 1992. The company does not belong to the Russian news corporation Interfax Information Services. The company pub ...

(6 November 2009) * In 2000,

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...

advocated a

write-in candidate A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...

''Ficus (the plant) for Congress'' as a unified vote for ''none of the above'' in congressional seats where the incumbent was running unopposed. * David Gatchell of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

ran for governor in 2002 and for Senate in 2006 as a protest, officially changing his middle name from Leroy to None of the Above. In 2006, he got 3,738 votes (0.2 percent). * For the

2013 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on Saturday 11 May 2013 to elect the members of the 14th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties were the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) led by Nawaz Sharif, t ...

, the

unilaterally decided that a 'none of the above' box would be available as a voting option on ballot papers. However, the commission subsequently decided against it owing to the short amount of time remaining until the elections. The concept was suggested to the Election Commission by Abid Hassan Manto, a constitutional expert and a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. *

Elections in South Ossetia South Ossetia elects on the national level a head of state—the President—and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The Parliament of South Ossetia has 34 members, elected for a five-year term using party-li ...

have an "against all" option. *

Elections in Abkhazia Abkhazia elects on national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The People's Assembly has 35 members, elected for a five-year term in single seat constituencie ...

have a "None of the above" option. * In 2021, the

States Assembly The States Assembly (french: Assemblée des États; Jèrriais: ) is the parliament of Jersey, formed of the island's 37 deputies and the Connétable of each of the twelve parishes. The origins of the legislature of Jersey lie in the system o ...

of the

Bailiwick of Jersey A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. The bailiwick is probably modelled on the ...

voted to introduce a 'None of the Above' ballot option for uncontested elections, which is set to debut at the

2022 Jersey general election The 2022 Jersey general election was held on June 22 to elect the 49 members of the States Assembly. Timeline In March 2021, it was announced the election could be held in June, rather than as regular in May, to minimise the impact of the four ba ...

. This has been designed as a means to eliminate uncontested elections to the Island's parliament. If the number of candidates standing for election is equal to or fewer than the available vacancies, voters will have the option to vote for 'None of the Above' to reject the candidate and hold a new election, effectively functioning as a confirmatory ballot.

Procedures that function like "none of the above"

Most ballots do not have a formal "none of the above" option, but do have procedures that work in a similar way.

Argentina

In Argentina casting an envelope without a ballot in a ballot box counts as a blank vote.

Poland

In 1989 legislative election in Poland voters were able to vote against the only candidate running, often from the ruling

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

by crossing out the candidate's name on the ballot. As a result, voters defeated the sitting prime minister and dozens of leading Communists because they failed to get the required majority.

Re-open Nominations (RON)

Many students' unions in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and others use a similar ballot option called 're-open nominations' (RON) in

IRV IRV or Irv or ''variant'', may refer to: *Instant-runoff voting, a type of ranked preferential voting counting method used in single-seat elections with more than two candidates *Irvine railway station, North Ayrshire, Scotland (National Rail stat ...

and

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

(STV) elections. These include the National Union of Students in the UK and UCD Student's Union in

. The difference is that RON is a vote against all candidates in FPTP (

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

) and all subsequent candidates in an IRV or STV election. RON is not strictly a none of the above candidate in transferable vote elections, as when RON is eliminated during the count its votes are transferred to other candidates if those preferences exist.

Illegal ballots in ''Robert's Rules of Order''

The American '' Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised (RONR)'' describes various forms of illegal ballots, which are ballots which do not count for any candidate. Blanks are treated as "scrap paper", and are of no effect, but "unintelligible ballots or ballots cast for an unidentifiable candidate or a fictional character are treated as illegal votes. All illegal votes cast by legal voters… are taken into account in determining the number of votes cast for purposes of computing the majority." RONR always requires a majority for election; thus, casting an illegal ballot or one for a hopeless candidate, whether on the ballot or as a write-in, is equivalent to voting No for all other candidates. "The principle is that a choice has no mandate from the voting body unless approval is expressed by more than half of those entitled to vote and registering any evidence of having some opinion."

No award

Voting for the

Hugo Awards The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

is by instant runoff voting, in which nominees for a category are ranked. There are normally seven options: six nominees, plus "No Award". A first preference vote for no award implies that the voter believes that either the category should be abolished, or that none of the nominees are worthy of an award. A second or subsequent preference implies that any higher-ranked nominees are worthy of an award, while those ranked lower are not.

Cultural references

* In the film '' Brewster's Millions,'' the protagonist Brewster (played by

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...

) is required, under certain conditions, to spend $30,000,000 in thirty days in order to inherit $300,000,000. He joins the race for Mayor of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and throws most of his money at a protest campaign urging a vote for None of the Above. The two major candidates sue Brewster for his confrontational rhetoric, leading to a massive settlement which of course furthers their competitor's goal. Brewster is forced to end his campaign when he learns that he is leading in the polls as a write-in candidate and has to publicly announce that he if he won the mayoralty he wants to decline it but is surprised his "None of the Above" campaign became so popular. (Of the conditions of the inheritance deal, Brewster was not permitted to permanently acquire any assets using the $30,000,000, including the Mayoralty of New York.) Neither candidate wins the election, and a new election with different candidates must be held. * In the sixth-season episode of ''

Captain Planet ''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'' is an American animated environmentalist superhero television series created by Barbara Pyle and Ted Turner and developed by Pyle, Nicholas Boxer, Thom Beers, Andy Heyward, Robby London, Bob Forward and Cas ...

'' called "Dirty Politics" three of the Eco-Villains are running for president and kidnap the fourth candidate, who is the most popular. Despite this over seventy percent vote None of the Above resulting in the need for a new election. * L. Neil Smith's novel ''

The Probability Broach ''The Probability Broach'' is a 1979 science fiction novel by American writer L. Neil Smith. It is set in an alternate history, the so-called " Gallatin Universe", where a libertarian society has formed on the North American continent, styled ...

'' has an

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

in which the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

becomes a

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

state after a successful

Whiskey Rebellion The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a violent tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax impo ...

and the overthrowing and execution of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

by firing squad for treason in 1794, where None of the Above (which is always an option on the ballot) has received the most votes for President of the

North American Confederacy The ''North American Confederacy'' is an alternate history series of novels created by L. Neil Smith. The series begins with ''The Probability Broach'' and there are eight sequels. The stories take place in a fictional country of the same na ...

on two occasions. The first time was in

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

, defeating Lucy Kropotkin by only one vote and would serve until 1972 as the NAC's 24th President. The second time was in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and again in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, being elected "President for Life" in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, serving as the 28th President and essentially abolishing the presidency. *

Wavy Gravy Hugh Nanton Romney Jr. (born May 15, 1936), known as Wavy Gravy, is an American entertainer and peace activism, activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his hippie persona and counterculture of the 1960s, countercultural be ...

has run a "

Nobody for President Nobody for President was a parodic campaign for the 1976 United States presidential election, as well as the 1980, 1984, and 1988 presidential elections. Wavy Gravy, master of ceremonies for the Woodstock Festival and official clown of the Gratefu ...

" campaign during several different election years in the United States.

References

External links

NOTA UK campaigning for real and lasting electoral reform in the UK since 2010

Rainbow Coalition – NOTA on Ballot – Random Selection of Man & Woman from pool of NOTA electorate following first past the post win

Voters for None of the Above

egistration required
None of the Above DNC Parody Site

None Of The Above – Tennessee

NOTA party UK

Escons en Blanc – Blank Seats, Spain

Movimiento Ciudadano por el Voto en Blanco Computable – Escaños en Blanco (Citizens' Movement for the Blank Counting Ballot – Blank Seats) Spain

No Candidate Deserves My Vote! party uk

Campaign for a None of the Above option

Campaign for a None of the Above option in Uruguay

Above and Beyond party
{{DEFAULTSORT:None Of The Above Voting Protest tactics