Dear Friends,
Firstly, thank you again for signing the NOTA UK petition ‘UK Elections: Include ‘None of the Above’ on all ballot papers’:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/inclusion-of-an-official-none-of-the-above-option-for-all-uk-elections-2
We have some news…
Parliamentary Committee recognises NOTA as a possible reform (and wants YOUR views on it!)
Ok, this is pretty big. You may recall that we submitted evidence earlier this year to the parliamentary Political & Constitutional Reform Committee looking into voter engagement. They recently published a set of proposed possible changes to the electoral system which, thanks to our lobbying, included ‘None of the above’ – but only, unfortunately, in the context of possibly introducing compulsory voting.
Now, they are launching a survey to gauge the public’s views on their proposals. Thanks to further lobbying from us, it includes this question:
“6. Should “None of the above” be an option on the ballot paper?”
This is significant, to say the least, as it is the first time, to our knowledge, that NOTA has ever been seriously discussed and put forward by a parliamentary committee as a possible reform in and of itself, regardless of whether voting is made compulsory or not.
Here’s the Committee’s press release.http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/political-and-constitutional-reform-committee/news/voting-arrangements-survey/
And here is the survey. http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/voter-reform
You know what to do!
Let’s seize this opportunity with both hands and make the call for real NOTA ‘with teeth’ absolutely overwhelming.
If you need further inspiration, here’s my additional comment on question 6:
“Should “None of the above” be an option on the ballot paper?
Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt. But it must be implemented properly i.e.: with formalised consequences for the result if the majority choose it. This kind of NOTA ‘with teeth’ is the only way to formally withhold consent at an election, something you must be able to do in a true democracy, consent being central to the concept of democracy itself. Having this option would level the playing field considerably and put more power in the hands of voters, almost certainly leading to further desirable democratic reform further down the line. Although it remains a travesty that this has not happened before, given how important NOTA is, I welcome the fact that this is FINALLY being discussed seriously. Well done everybody!”
ONWARDS & UPWARDS!
Jamie Stanley
NOTA UK
04/12/14
PS: If you are a #notauk supporter on Twitter, during Question Time whenever it is on, please RT our scheduled tweets (from @NOTAcampaign) and reply to all #bbcqt posts using the #noneoftheabove tag to help push the issue into the mainstream debate.
OR
If you’d rather schedule a tweet of your own to automatically post (while you are doing something infinitely more rewarding than watching Question Time, perhaps), I highly recommend this app: http://postcron.com/
Thanks in advance!