Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Voting for ‘Noah Ward’
Voting for ‘Noah Ward’
Sep 20, 2024 11:49 AM

“None of the above,” or NOTA, is a voting concept that would allow ballot-casters to express their frustration with the available candidates. It’s been a staple of voting procedure at the United States Libertarian Party for years.

The Florida legislature is now considering an “I Choose Not To Vote” option. This choice is not the same as NOTA, since if it “won” a majority of votes it would not result in any necessary action. The candidate who gets the highest vote total would still win the race, but the option would “enable uninformed or disgusted voters to opt out in a way that clearly displays their intention to abstain for elections officials,” according to state Sen. Mike Bennett.

The idea is basically NOTA without the teeth. But it may be a step in the right direction for a nation facing depressed voter turnouts, increasingly negative campaigns, and a problematic nomination system.

And at least in the case of Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, it may be a more attractive option than simply not casting a ballot at all.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Debating Food Equality in New York
The Food Bank For New York recently released their annual report on the state of hunger in the city and the growing disparity between e New Yorkers and New York City’s professional class. The report refers to this disparity as the food “haves” and “have nots.” The report, “NYC Hunger Experience 2012: One City, Two Realities,” was released Tuesday at the 21st annual Agency Conference. The New York Non-Profit Press summarized the key findings: Almost one in three New York...
Happiness, work, and the eternal quest for meaning
In my cautionary post on the constant temptation to indulge in earthbound economics, I mentioned that even seemingly noble, intangible features such as “happiness” can be just as futile and vain when pursued on our own terms and for our own limited purposes. If we don’t order and define things properly, the “pursuit of happiness” can easilydistract us away from our eternal quest for widespread spiritual transformation. As the author of Ecclesiastes points out, when “testing ourselves” with mere pleasure—even...
A Cookie for Me, But Not for Thee
There are some amazing economic and moral lessons, related to redistribution, zeo-sum fallacies, as well as virtue and desire, embedded in this Sesame Street video: Can you think of any other ways that both Ernie and Cookie Monster might have been able to be happy instead of sad? And what if the object in question weren’t a cookie, but instead something like an apple, perhaps? ...
Audio: Ray Nothstine on Gun Control
Ray Nothstine, managing editor of Religion & Liberty, was recently on Relevant Radio with Drew Mariani to discuss the issue of gun control. According to the Chicago Tribune: President Barack Obama unveiled a sweeping plan to reduce gun violence…that would require criminal background checks for all gun sales and a ban on military-style assault weapons. Obama also proposed an end to high-capacity ammunition clips, instead limiting clips to 10 rounds, according to details of the plan released by the White...
Audio: Samuel Gregg Discusses ‘Becoming Europe’ on Relevant Radio
Recently Samuel Gregg, was interviewed by Sheila Liaugminas of Relevant Radio. They discuss Gregg’s latest book, ing Europe. Listen to the interview here: [Audio: Michael Novak, author of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, says this about the book: If you don’t know Samuel Gregg’s writing, you don’t know one of the top two or three writers on the free society today: free in its culture, free in its politics, and free in its economy. In this book, Gregg has produced...
Amity Shlaes on ‘The Good Rich’ and the Folly of Philanthropy
In a new book, The Good Rich and What They Cost Us, Robert Dalzell Jr. aims to address “a great paradox at the core of the American Dream: a passionate belief in the principles of bined with an equally passionate celebration of wealth.” In a review for the Wall Street Journal, Amity Shlaes notes that although the book provides an in-depth look at the history of American philanthropy, the author’s own personal prescriptions lend too high a trust to government...
We Should Affirm All Callings—Even Pastoral Ones
The winter issue of Leadership Journal is on vocation and callings. In the lead editorial, managing editor Drew Dyck reminds us that while it’s important to affirm the calling of lawyers, journalists, and plumbers, we need to remember that being a pastor is a calling too: I applaud this move toward a more holistic understanding of vocation. I’ve seen numerous books on the topic published in the past few years. Conferences are springing up. What’s most heartening is to see...
Commentary: Hollywood 2012: What Messages are the Movies Sending Us?
“If I had cash to spend on promoting the values and ideas and policies that I believed were best for this country, you can bet that I would be out finding talented directors, writers, and producers who shared those values,” writes R.J. Moeller. The full text of his essay follows. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton News & Commentary and other publicationshere. Hollywood 2012: What messages are the movies sending us? byR.J. Moeller The list ofthe twenty-five top-grossing films(worldwide) of...
The Audacity of Irony: Obama and “Religious Freedom Day”
Yesterday, while his lawyers were busy defending against charges that the Obama administration violated the religious freedoms of his fellow citizens, President Obama was designating January 17 as Religious Freedom Day. The author of the The Audacity of Hope has the audacity to hope that Americans will not snicker at the idea that he’s a defender of religious liberty. In his proclamation, Obama says, Today, we also remember that religious liberty is not just an American right; it is a...
The Idle Ents
You’re part of this world, aren’t you? A tree-herder should know better! Last week I had the pleasure of participating in the First Kuyper Seminar, “Economics, Christianity & The Crisis: Towards a New Architectonic Critique,” held at the VU University Amsterdam. I gave a paper on “The Moral Challenges of Economic Equality and Diversity,” which focused on envy as a moral challenge particularly endemic to market economies: “Since envy arises out of inequality, envy and inequality go together. And since...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2024 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved