None of These Candidates

Notable impact on elections

If the "None of These Candidates" option receives the most votes in an election, then the actual candidate who receives the most votes still wins the election. This has most notably happened on two occasions: in the 1976 Republican primary for Nevada's At-large congressional district, None of These Candidates received 16,097 votes, while Walden Earhart received 9,831 votes, followed by Dart Anthony with 8,097 votes. Even though he received fewer votes than "None of These Candidates", Earhart won the Republican nomination.

According to a report by then-Secretary of State Dean Heller, "None of These Candidates" has finished first on three other occasions:

• a 1978 Republican congressional primary
• a 1978 Republican Secretary of State primary
• a 1986 Democratic Treasurer primary. The "None of These Candidates" options has finished first on a few other occasions after Heller published his report:
• the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary.
• the 2024 Republican presidential primary in which Donald Trump did not appear on the primary ballot and ran in the caucuses instead.

The "None of These Candidates" option has possibly played a spoiler effect in close races, such as in the 1998 U.S. Senate election, in which Democratic incumbent Sen. Harry Reid defeated Republican challenger John Ensign by only 428 votes, while None of These Candidates drew 8,125 votes.

Court challenge

In June 2012, anticipating a close race in Nevada during the 2012 presidential elections, the Republican National Committee challenged the constitutionality of the option. Fearing that the option would siphon votes from the Republican ticket, the RNC claimed that the option is not constitutional because if "None of these Candidates" received the most votes, it would not win the election. The Nevada Attorney General, on behalf of the Secretary of State of Nevada, argued that the option was a protest vote intended to send a message and whose outcome was no different from not voting at all. On August 22, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones agreed with the plaintiffs and struck down the law allowing the option as unconstitutional. He refused to issue a stay pending the outcome of an appeal, meaning the ban on this option was immediate.

On September 4, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an emergency stay against the district court's order. The emergency stay barred the implementation of Judge Jones's injunction until the Ninth Circuit could hear an appeal, allowing the "none of these candidates" option to remain on the ballot in the November 2012 elections. On July 10, 2013, the Court of Appeals threw out the lawsuit, preserving the "none of these candidates" option. One member of that panel, Judge Stephen Reinhardt, criticized Jones' handling of the case: "His dilatory tactics appear to serve no purpose other than to seek to prevent the state from taking an appeal of his decision before it prints the ballots.... Such arrogance and assumption of power by one individual is not acceptable in our judicial system."

General election results in presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial elections

U.S. presidential elections results in Nevada

• 1976: 5,108 votes (2.53%)
• 1980: 4,193 votes (1.69%)
• 1984: 3,950 votes (1.38%)
• 1988: 6,934 votes (1.98%)
• 1992: 2,537 votes (0.50%)
• 1996: 5,608 votes (1.21%)
• 2000: 3,315 votes (0.54%)
• 2004: 3,668 votes (0.44%)
• 2008: 6,267 votes (0.65%)
• 2012: 5,770 votes (0.57%)
• 2016: 28,863 votes (2.56%)
• 2020: 14,079 votes (1.00%)
• 2024: 19,625 votes (1.32%)

U.S. Senate elections

• 1976: 5,288 votes (2.62%)
• 1980: 3,163 votes (1.28%)
• 1982: 5,297 votes (2.20%)
• 1986: 9,472 votes (3.62%)
• 1988: 7,242 votes (2.07%)
• 1992: 13,154 votes (2.65%)
• 1994: 12,626 votes (3.32%)
• 1998: 8,125 votes (1.86%)
• 2000: 11,503 votes (1.92%)
• 2004: 12,968 votes (1.60%)
• 2006: 8,232 votes (1.41%)
• 2010: 16,197 votes (2.25%)
• 2012: 45,277 votes (4.54%)
• 2016: 42,257 votes (3.81%)
• 2018: 15,303 votes (1.57%)
• 2022: 12,441 votes (1.22%)
• 2024: 44,380 votes (3.03%)

Gubernatorial elections

• 1978: 3,218 votes (1.67%)
• 1982: 6,894 votes (2.87%)
• 1986: 5,471 votes (2.10%)
• 1990: 9,017 votes (2.81%)
• 1994: 8,785 votes (2.31%)
• 1998: 12,641 votes (2.92%)
• 2002: 23,674 votes (4.70%)
• 2006: 20,699 votes (3.56%)
• 2010: 12,231 votes (1.71%)
• 2014: 15,751 votes (2.88%)
• 2018: 18,865 votes (1.94%)
• 2022: 14,866 votes (1.46%)

Notes

References

References

1. "NRS: Chapter 293 - Elections".
2. Silver, Nate. (August 27, 2010). "In Nevada, No One Is Someone to Watch - NYTimes.com". Fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com.
3. (June 11, 2014). "Nevada Democrats Chose 'None of These Candidates' in Primary". NBC News.
4. Sean Whaley. (June 11, 2014). "'None of the above' beats out all Demo governor candidates in Nevada". [[Las Vegas Review-Journal]].
5. (February 6, 2024). "Nevada Republican Primary Election Results". The New York Times.
6. (August 26, 2009). "None of These Candidates". Onlinenevada.org.
7. (August 22, 2012). "Federal judge strikes down Nevada's "none of the above" voting option". Washington Post.
8. (September 4, 2012). "Emergency Stay Order, Townley v. Miller". United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
9. Chereb, Sandra. (July 10, 2013). "'None Of The Above' Ballot Option In Nevada Upheld By Federal Appeals Court". [[Huffington Post]].
10. (September 5, 2012). "Nevadans to keep "none of the above" ballot option". CBS News.