‘None of These Candidates’ gets nearly 45,000 Senate votes
If this were the final election in which Nevadans could cast the unique ballot choice of "None of These Candidates," then the option had one last hurrah.
Voters in the U.S. Senate race punched "None of These Candidates" more than 44,700 times, good for 4.5 percent of the vote. Coupled with 48,000 votes, or 5 percent, cast for Independent American Party candidate David Lory Vanderbeek, Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Dean Heller's victory over Democrat Shelley Berkley wasn't as wide as it could have been.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas political science professor David Damore said it could be assumed most of the "None of These Candidates" votes would have gone to Heller.
"It's obviously hurting Heller," Damore said. "This happens when you have two sort of unlikable candidates running a very negative race."
The protest vote had absolutely no bearing in the presidential campaign between President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, accounting for less than 1 percent.
A 1975 law granted Nevadans the right to cast the unique protest vote for "None of These Candidates."
Last June, a lawsuit seeking an injunction to remove the option was filed in federal court and financed by the Republican National Committee.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jones ruled in August that "None of These Candidates" was unconstitutional because the ballot option can never win, even if it gets the most votes.
Secretary of State Ross Miller fought the ruling.
In September, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Jones' ruling, allowing the ballot option to be included for the 2012 election cycle. "None of These Candidates" was not a factor in this year's state Supreme Court races since all three justices ran unopposed.
Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal
.com or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
