Research
We will continue to conduct research to show the potential impact of this reform proposal, here are some examples
Presidential Election 2024
If Americans could vote NO, who would have won?
Voters would have won. Democracy would have won.
Excerpts from the press release:
If voters have the choice to vote NO, ..... it allows voters to vote sincerely, either FOR someone they genuinely support or AGAINST someone they genuinely despise, instead of holding their noses to vote for a “lesser evil”. The result would more truthfully reflect voters’ preferences. That’s good for democracy. Voters will be happier.
Since each voter still has only one vote, the loyal partisan voters will vote for their candidate of choice. The above numbers show that Trump supporters are more loyal, only 4% out of 40% would change (mainly to vote against Harris). For Harris, 6% out of 41% will change their vote (mainly to vote against Trump). Among those who might vote for a third-party candidate (6%), clearly more would prefer to vote against Trump, and that’s why Trump would end up with the most Negative Votes (-9%) vs Harris’ (-6%). It is also useful to note that even in a two-person race (which this contest is essentially), the winner would not be able to claim ”majority mandate” when voters are allowed to vote NO. Therefore, the winner should be humbler, that’s also good for democracy.
A cynical comment we have heard sometimes is that if voter can vote NO then “all candidates will receive net negative votes”. This survey, together with the two previous RAND surveys all showed that will not happen, even if there are just two candidates and both have very high disapproval ratings. That’s because each voter still has only one vote and loyal partisan voters will vote YES for the party nominee. The total YES votes will exceed total NO votes by a wide margin. (73% vs 16% in this survey).
One concern we sometimes hear is that voters might vote against the major parties and some small fringe candidate might win if voters can vote NO. Our researches show that will not happen. Any third-party candidate will still need to have very significant real loyal support, to win in a three-person race. In this survey, the 6% support for “Someone else” drops to 2% when voters can vote NO. That’s clear evidence that many who would vote for “someone else” do so reluctantly because they do not like either of the major party candidates and would prefer to vote NO when that choice is available.
According to Ballotpedia, “Through October 2024, Ballotpedia has covered 36,068 elections in 55 states and territories. Of that total, 27,164 (75%) were uncontested and 8,904 (25%) were contested.”
In all these uncontested races, plus all those with just two contestants for one seat, electoral reform proposals such as Ranked Choice Voting or Approval Voting or Proportional Representation or Score Voting would be irrelevant. Having the choice to vote NO would be relevant, powerful, and should be implemented as a basic right of choice.
Presidential Election 2020
A RAND Corp survey showed a 3.4% increase in voter participation in the twelve swing states if people have the choice to vote AGAINST a candidate. Trump would receive a net negative vote of -2.0%.
Presidential Election 2016
A RAND survey of 2016 Presidential election showed if voters could vote NO, voter participation would have been 6.9% higher and Trump would have received net negative votes of 3.9%.
Results of Voter Roll Call Survey
Data Collected: 12/14/2020 - 12/17/2020
Georgia Senate runoff election survey result. Both races are two-person contests, in which RCV, Approval Voting, etc. would not be meaningful or applicable. #NegativeVote is relevant and meaningful. In a tight two-person race, winner is unlikely to get majority mandate when #NegativeVote option is available. This research proves that point. If a winner does not have majority mandate, even in a two-person race, (s)he should be humbler. A humbler winner is good for democracy.
It is encouraging to note that support for the #NegativeVote concept (42%) is much higher than disapproval (25%). Support is broad and cross party lines, and very strong among the young.