December 19, 2023 02:04 PM UTC

"None of the Above" Added to Democratic Presidential Primary Ballot

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As The Colorado Sun reports in its “Unaffiliated” newsletter:

If voters casting ballots in Colorado’s Democratic presidential primary next year don’t like any of the candidates on their ballot, they’ll be able to choose what’s effectively a “none of the above” option.

The Colorado Democratic Party added a “noncommitted delegate” choice to the March 5 ballot that gives voters the option of sending untethered representatives to the Democratic National Convention next year to select the party’s nominee. Instead of being bound to support a Democratic presidential primary candidate supported by Colorado voters, the delegates could back any candidate on the floor of the nominating convention. [Pols emphasis]

The 2024 Democratic presidential primary in Colorado will be only the second time in state history that voters will be able to cast a ballot for a “noncommitted delegate.” It comes as national polls have shown that Democratic voters are wary of President Joe Biden’s reelection bid.

“We aim to provide as many choices as we can to our voters,” Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib said in a text message to The Colorado Sun.

The Democratic presidential primary in Colorado is not a winner-take-all contest. How well a candidate — or the “noncommitted delegate” choice — performs determines how many delegates from the state they will get at the Democratic National Convention, where the party’s presidential nominee will be selected.

“None of the Above,” or NOTA, is an idea that has long fascinated us as an interesting option for voters. The idea behind NOTA is that it could encourage more people to vote by giving them a clear option to voice their displeasure with all of the candidates. You can do that now by not selecting anything on a particular question — which is called an “undervote” — but many voters might feel compelled to mark something in each race on their ballot. This seems to be the main motivation for inclusion on Colorado’s Democratic Presidential Primary ballot.

Official “NOTA” results in other elections could make for a more compelling narrative when vote totals are reported. It could even encourage candidates with non-competitive races — including entrenched incumbents — to work a little harder on reaching out to voters/constituents for fear of ending up with a sizable “NOTA” total in the next election. For example, the Republican nominee in CO-04 is almost certainly going to win the General Election for the right to succeed retiring Rep. Ken Buck (R-Greeley) because the voter makeup in the fourth congressional district is so heavily-skewed toward the GOP. If “NOTA” were on the ballot in 2024, the Republican nominee would want to do more voter outreach to non-Republican voters so as not to look vulnerable to a strong challenger in the next election.

We know what you’re thinking: What if “NOTA” wins? Obviously you can’t hold another election, again and again, until an actual candidate wins, so the person with the most votes would be declared the winner.

This has been an option in Nevada since 1976 — where it’s officially called “None of These Candidates” — and it has even “won” a few times (there are also several countries with versions of “NOTA” as an option on the ballot). “None of These Candidates” has finished first in Nevada on five occasions: Republican Congressional Primaries in 1976 and 1978; a Republican Secretary of State Primary in 1978; a Democratic Congressional Primary in 1986; and most recently in a 2014 Democratic gubernatorial Primary. “None of These Candidates” may also play something of a spoiler role when it receives more total votes than the number of votes that separate the two top candidates on the ballot.

What say you, Polsters?

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