Voters, especially first time Nevada voters, will see a ballot option not found in any other state when they go to the polls.
In the races for president, federal and constitutional offices, Nevada gives the option of voting for “None of These Candidates” if they don’t like any of those running for a given office.
It was created in 1975 and has proven popular with voters. In this election cycle, no state constitutional offices are up for grabs. But voters will have that option in races for President, U.S. Senate and the state’s four congressional offices.
Given the unprecedented unfavorable ratings Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have, it may be the choice of more than just a few voters for President.
Mind you, “None” is a protest vote that has no effect on who’s declared the winner. The actual candidate with the highest vote total still claims the victory.
To date, None has never won a General Election race in Nevada.
Some cynics have suggested if None wins, the office should be held vacant until the next general election.
None has, however, been accused of having a spoiler impact in close races. The most prominent example being the 1998 U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign. Reid won by just 428 votes. None received 8,125.
None has been the winner in several primary elections. It was the winner of the Republican primary for Nevada’s only congressional district in 1976, its first appearance on the ballot, with 16,097 votes to Wally Earhart’s 9,831 votes. Earhart received the nomination but was defeated by James Santini in the General Election.
It happened in the Democratic primary for governor just two years ago when None won 30 percent of the vote. Robert Goodman was awarded the Democratic nomination with just 25 percent of the vote.
He went onto lose 78-24 percent to Gov. Brian Sandoval.
None did come in second in the 1990 Controller’s race, beating Libertarian Kent Cromwell by more than 3,000 votes. Incumbent Darrel Daines won the race with more than three times the 63,835 who voted for None.
According to the Political History of Nevada, None of These Candidates won in three other primary races.
In 1978, Bill O’Mara got 14,610 votes while None received 15,441 in the Republican congressional primary. In the race for Secretary of State that same year, Earhart was again beaten by None — 18,383 to 16,599.
In the 1986 treasurer’s Democratic primary, the victim was Patrick Fitzpatrick who lost to None 19,891 to 18,389.
While unique in the U.S., Nevada isn’t the only place on this planet where voters can express their dislike of all candidates in a race. ”None of the Above” is standard in India, Greece, the Ukraine, Spain, Bangladesh and Colombia. Russia offered that option in the past but eliminated it in 2006.
FIRST DAY TOTAL
There has been a total of 2,056 voters after the first day of early voting in Carson City.
On the first day of early voting there were 514 Democrats, 544 Republicans and 209 others for a total of 1,267 early voters.
There have been 859 absentee ballots counted so far for a total of 2,056 voters.
The early voting total is still below the 1,333 voters on the first day of early voting in the 2012 presidential election.
For the statistics visit http://www.carson.org/government/departments-a-f/clerk-recorder/early-voting-and-absentee-information.
