actually VOTE NO | by Sleevs
Vote NO 2016 What if NO actually won?

Bernie Sanders has endorsed Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee.

And a lot of us are very, very, very unhappy.

Not just unhappy about having to choose between the lesser of two evils -- democratic elections often come down to such hold-your-nose choices -- but lacking faith entirely in the two-party system.

What if we, the American people, were to declare the party system broken & choose none of the above? What would that look like?

Imagine the simplest, most straightforward write-in: NO.

No.

No, we will not vote for the lesser of two evils this time. The evils have gotten too evil.

No, we will not let duopolistic parties choose our candidates for president.

No. We reject the premise. Not a spoiler vote; people from all political walks can come together to agree on NONE OF THE ABOVE.

If NO only helped prevent any candidate from reaching the electoral threshold, the House would choose between the top five vote-getters. Because the vote is by state delegation, not member by member, this would likely result in a Trump presidency. (VP's chosen separately by the Senate; forgive me if I'm telling you things about the Constitution you already know.)

But if NO outright won, what then?

Some polls indicate 60% of Americans are unhappy with both options. Even Reagan immediately before his landslide over Mondale in 1984 didn't quite poll 60%. (He was close.)

There'd probably be legal battles about whether a NO vote counts at all since it isn't a person.

So a coherent yet simple idea of what NO means would be necessary.

Still thinking on this; ideas and Constitutional precedents welcome. We're seeking something that restores the power to the people, rather than keeping it in the hands of party hacks.

I want it to mean do-over, but the Constitution mandates the election day, so if we decide to do it over again, we'd have to find a constitutional way to make it happen before November 2020.

Campaign slogan in the next presidential election: Hindsight is 2020

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Originally posted: 26 July 2016 ~00:30

© 2016 Emily Messner | sleevs.net