Ignorance, Alienation, Protest or Distrust? A Cross-National Study on Individual-Level Attitudes Towards the “None of the Above” Option on the Ballot Paper

Electoral participation is vital to political democracy. Yet, in recent elections “nonvoting”, namely people deciding to abstain or spoil the ballot on Election Day is on the rise almost everywhere with no signs of rebounding. Nonvoting is consistent with multiple “interpretations”. It can represent alienation from politics, reflect a lack of information or interest about the issues at stake, protest voting or even satisfaction with the current state of democracy. Some motivations for nonvoting such as widespread and persistent alienation from electoral politics are much more harmful for democracy than others since they indicate broader concerns about the legitimacy of existing political arrangements. The ambiguity of not knowing what nonvoting means has led some reformers to advocate for the inclusion of a “none of the above” (NOTA) option on the ballot. By providing voters with such a ballot option, it is in principle possible for voters to send a clear signal of discontent or protest. Despite its potential utility however, there exist almost no systematic studies of voters’ attitudes towards the NOTA option or use. In this study, we are interested in voters’ views about the NOTA option and specifically in addressing the following questions: Which voters would like to have a ‘None of the above’ option on the ballot paper? Does a NOTA choice reflect protest voting, indifference, low information or rejection of all candidates? These questions are addressed using original post-election survey data collected in 8 European countries after the May 2019 European Parliament (EP) elections. The findings show that NOTA votes are motivated more by alienation and indifference than ignorance with conspicuous variation between countries that do offer a strong protest party and those who do not. The results have important implications for our understanding of protest voting, public opinion, and the linkage between elections and political representation.