Mr. Moderate

Let me say at the beginning that I favor Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), and my “vote for nobody” campaign should not be enacted unless IRV is also in force at the same time.

Given IRV, then among the list of candidates should always be included the option of voting for “None of the above.” In an IRV system, each voter marks N candidates in order, and with my “vote for nobody” option, “none of the above” would always be presumed as the N+1th option marked by the voter unless “None of the above” was previously marked by the voter. Valid but totally blank ballots would always be presumed as a vote for “none of the above” in the first position. In the event that “None of the above” should actually win (achieve a majority vote) under the IRV system, then all current candidates are barred from running again for a specified period of time and a re-run of the election is held with an entirely new list of candidates. The process may be repeated as many times as needed to achieve a majority victory by some candidate. In this way, the elected candidate will always be the choice of the majority. And if no candidate can obtain a majority vote, we are not left with the lesser evil, but instead get a new vote. Think about it: actual majority rule! And there would be no real advantage obtained by any candidate who could manage to generate “spoiled ballots” as those would be counted as votes for “none of the above” and would count against the leading candidate possibly obtaining a “50%+1 vote” majority.