⨳Consider introducing the option to vote for ‘None of the candidates above’ (aka ‘NOTA’) at future democratic elections for all political offices in the UK – see https://bit.ly/3K5EdUn. Failing this, the Electoral Commission must be instructed to publish and publicise official guidance on how ballot papers should be marked (or not marked) in order to be counted and reported officially as rejected ballot papers.
It is highly desirable to make provision for voters who explictly wish to vote against all the candidates offered in an election.
They can do this by just not voting, or by spoiling their ballot paper, but neither option distinguishes them from voters who just don’t care.
At the very least ⨳the Electoral Commission should be instructed to publish and publicise official guidance on how ballot papers should be marked (or not marked) in order to be counted and reported officially as rejected ballot papers.
But to make the voter’s choice clear and unabiguous we should ⨳consider introducing the option to vote for ‘None of the candidates above’ (aka ‘NOTA’) at future democratic elections for all political offices in the UK – see https://bit.ly/3K5EdUn.
And a report of the number of NOTA votes would at the very least be interesting and illuminating.
However, we cannot ignore the possibility that NOTA might actually top the poll, and we have to consider what should be done if it does. If we really believe in democracy, which is debatable, then the only defensible option would seem to be to rerun the poll and to bar all the rejected candidates from standing.
But no political party is likely to accept that option with enthusiasm. Which is why NOTA is possibly never going to happen. Which makes it even more important to ask for it, to help expose the hypocrisy.
[More to be said about NOTA in multi-member constituencies]