NOTA Legislation

NOTA (None Of The Above) legislation is practiced in a few other countries. All candidate races have a "NOTA" candidate. So in contested races you would have these choices:

• Candidate A
• Candidate B
• None of the above for a new election

Benefits

This simple inclusion of a NOTA candidate allows voters to withhold their consent of the governed. It gives voters the freedom to not choose between two evils and reject candidates from all parties. This has been thought to negate the influence of money in elections through an alternative option.

Drawbacks

When other countries implemented NOTA legislation the costs and the number of elections were elevated for about 5 years. After the 5 years, the amount of election and election costs went down. After a decade in place, however, many surveys conclude that people feel that they have much better representation. New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world where citizens actually have a high degree of respect for most of their politicians after they implemented NOTA.

Anonymous Serialized Voting

Anonymous Serialized voting is used in Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and in Scotland, and Ireland.

A voter would go to the poll and identify themselves with a valid form of identification. Then the voter can at random draw a paper ballot. The paper ballot has a carbonless carbon copy and there is a serial number placed on the original and the carbon copy. No one but the voter knows the serial number they drew. The voter fills out the ballot and rips of the top copy and keeps it. The bottom copy is fed into a counting machine that scans the ballot and recognizes the serial number.

After the polls close the results can be published to a website and the voter can input their serial number and they can see if their ballot was counted properly.

Benefits

There is much greater confidence in the accuracy of voting with anonymous serialized voting.

Drawbacks

Some people will try to game the system and assert that their copy is wrong. Someone could steal your ballot and determine how you voted.