Stakeholder Control: Democracy Needs a “None of the Above” (NOTA) Ballot Option

Democracy needs a “None of the Above” ballot option.

Would it not be nice if when you look at your ballot and do not like any of the options, you could select “None of the Above”?

What would such a ballot option look like? Well, in the year 2000, California considered a None of the Above (NOTA) ballot option. However, the state proposition to create such an option never garnered enough support, probably because it had a critical flaw: It explicitly specified that voting NOTA “would not affect the outcome of the election.” So of course this proposition never passed: Why would anyone bother with a ballot option that would have no effect?

The State of Nevada actually has enacted this NOTA ballot option for decades. However, it seems to have had little effect probably because it too specifies that voting NOTA does not change the outcome of the election.

So, what could a possible system look like in which NOTA does have an effect?

This Stakeholder Control* article proposes one simple solution: If the NOTA option receives the most votes, then a group of citizens who voted in the election will be chosen at random by lot to fulfill the one empty position as a committee. This system would mirror that of ancient Athenian democracy, in which almost all government positions (except a few generals) were assigned to random citizens.