Voters Seeking Chance to Vote for Nobody

BOSTON —  Call it the turkey vote.

Some voters are pushing “none of the above” as a better option in a year when they think the ballot choices are more suited for stuffing than for public office.

The NOTA option has been listed on Nevada ballots since 1976--and won six times.

The idea has attracted attention in Massachusetts, especially from liberals who are scratching their heads over the choices to replace Gov. Michael S. Dukakis--Democrat John Silber and Republican William Weld.

Silber, a tough-talking university president, alienated some Democrats with his blunt statements about women and minorities. Weld, an advocate of conservative stands on fiscal policy and gun control, offers little comfort to liberals thinking about defecting from the majority party. Both candidates have participated in name-calling and negative campaigning.

The Pioneer Valley Pro-Democracy Campaign wants election officials in six communities to count the NOTA vote this year, says group spokesman Randy Kehler.

“It seems to be striking a very responsive chord,” he said.

The group will hand out NOTA stickers to voters on Election Day, Kehler said, adding that election officials he had spoken to seemed interested in the group’s proposal.

Margaret Nartowicz of the Amherst town clerk’s office said NOTA votes will be counted in that community.

Kehler said the NOTA option would be more than a mere expression of dissatisfaction. If NOTA won more votes than the candidates, he said, it would force a new election with new candidates.

“Voters need this option when the political system is not giving them candidates to their liking,” Kehler said.

In Nevada, where the NOTA option has been on the ballot in statewide races for 14 years, new elections are not provided for if NOTA wins.

Don Mello, a former Nevada Democratic state senator, introduced the NOTA legislation after finding widespread dissatisfaction among voters in the post-Watergate years.

“Back in 1975, I would go door to door, and I found so many people who said, ‘We would vote for you, but we’re not going to vote,’ ” Mello said. “I started thinking, ‘What can I get on the ballot that will get people to go to the polls?’ ”