NOTA VOTE MISSION STATEMENT: NOTA VOTE is a political campaign movement committed to getting an official None Of The Above

option on the UK ballot paper for all future elections. FAQS: WHAT IS NONE OF THE ABOVE? None Of The Above (NOTA) is an official box that appears at the bottom of a ballot paper. It enables the electorate to register a vote of no confidence in all the parties and candidates put forward at election time, if they so choose. DONT WE HAVE NOTA ALREADY? No we dont. Abstaining is not the same as being able to register a vote of no confidence, it is simply not participating and can be instantly dismissed as voter apathy with no further analysis. Spoiling the ballot is not the same either as spoilt ballots can be counted as spoilt in error. Any spoilt vote count is therefore meaningless and does not provide a measure of voter discontent. An official NOTA option, by contrast, would. WHY IS NOTA SO IMPORTANT? The statistics for the last few general and local elections in the UK show that millions of people dont bother voting at all. They arent all apathetic; many of them simply see no point in voting, as nothing ever seems to change for the better. Many more people vote tactically or out of duty for the lesser of several evils rather than for anything or anyone they actually support. The recent surge of support for UKIP, for example, was widely seen as a virtual vote for NOTA. An official NOTA option on the ballot would provide a way for all of these people, and anyone else for that matter, to register a meaningful vote of no confidence in the system as a whole if they so choose. As such, NOTA is certainly the ultimate protest vote. But far from being a negative act, we see being able to vote NOTA, and the ramifications this would bring, as a logical progression and positive first step towards real and lasting political reform. In short, NOTA is a democratic pre-requisite. If you cannot register a vote of no confidence in all parties and candidates on offer then it is not a true democracy, in our view. HOW WOULD NOTA WORK? We believe that the existence of an official NOTA option on the ballot paper, the logistics of how it would work and its ramifications would naturally trigger much needed reform of our entire political system. Logistics: If we had a NOTA option on the ballot and it were to receive a majority share of the vote either across the board nationally at a general election or in

specific constituencies at either local or general elections (very possible, we believe, in the current climate) this would naturally render the corresponding vote count null and void. In the case of specific constituencies choosing NOTA, this would naturally trigger a by-election with new candidates. By extension, at a national level, a win for NOTA ought to naturally trigger a re-run of the whole election with new candidates in place. Clearly, the logistics of having a re-run election and/or location specific by-elections straight after a general election are problematic. For this reason, it is our proposal that in order to make this process run smoothly with the least amount of disruption, rather than have the by-elections / re-run election happen straight away, the second place candidate or party should be allowed to take office temporarily on the understanding that the NOTA win triggered by-elections / re-run will take place no less than 6 months and no more than 18 months after the initial election. This proposal could even be modified to take into account the vote share for NOTA and the runners up in different constituencies with a view to staggering by-elections across the year to avoid political instability. For example, a NOTA win by 200% could trigger a 6 month delay before the by election, a NOTA win by 100% could trigger a 12 month delay, and so on. In practice, we don't see this as being any more or less problematic than the hung parliament scenario of last time round. We do however see it as being infinitely more democratic and representative of the will of the electorate. Ramifications: In our view, this system is workable and could deliver real change to UK politics. In the event of a NOTA win, the six month to one year delay before the by-elections / re-run election would give the electorate, parties and election organisers time to prepare for the new election/s. It would also give the second place candidate or party (who, although not victorious, will still have pulled a significant share of the vote) an opportunity to prove themselves worthy of being in office ahead of the new election/s, at which they would be free to stand again. Whether or not the other previously rejected candidates would be allowed to stand again or not would, in our view, be an issue for the parties and Electoral Commission to decide. Either way, it would hardly be in the interests of the parties to put forward an unpopular rejected candidate twice. The upshot would be that all political parties would be forced to have a contingency plan in place if their candidates were roundly rejected the first time round, a plan that would have to involve having more progressive candidates and policies to put forward if need be. Of course, they may well approach this in a public relations, style-overcontent manner to begin with in which case people would be free to reject them via NOTA again if not convinced. It may take a while, but eventually the parties would learn that they have to start actually representing the electorate in order to be elected in the first place. The logical progression from that is that self-serving career politicians would be discouraged from standing in the first place and those of integrity and a genuine will to represent their community would be encouraged. This is Democracy in action, in other words which, in our view, is impossible

without NOTA. Ultimately, this NOTA inspired shift away from corrupt, special interest corporate politics to community and integrity based human politics could, in all likelihood, lead to further reform of the voting system itself Proportional Representation in place of First Past The Post, perhaps and could eventually mean that NOTA would hardly need to be used at all. Yet all the while it is there, the allimportant check and balance it provides would remain. When seen this way, it becomes clear that voting NOTA, if we could, would not be a vote against the current system but a vote FOR a better one. That is what None Above is all about. Lets make it happen. JOIN US!