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Besides, Nevada, in United States, having the option to vote none of the above (NOTA) are there any other places in the world that allow for voters to tick NOTA?
If this is the case, are there any studies on the effect of having such an option? Did it increase voter turnout?
NOTA in Nevada is non-binding: the highest placed candidate gets the seat
Votos en blanco in Colombia is binding: elections are re-run if over 50%
Declined ballots in some provinces in Canada are non-binding but three provinces publish the official stats in election results
NOTA in Russia was binding but this has been removed from legislation.
Vote blanc in france is non binding
Votos en blanco in spain is non binding but stats are published
There are several different "none of these" options that have been implemented. Many of them are only implemented in private elections (as distinct from public elections; e.g. elections within unions or student elections or internal elections in political parties).
One is "Re-Open Nominations" (aka RON). If elected, then the nominations have to be re-opened and then the election re-run. Sometimes, those nominated the first time are ineligible to be nominated again.
A second possible result is to create a casual vacancy (as if the elected person had died in office), which is then filled by the normal mechanism for filling a vacancy. If that normal mechanism is a by-election (US: special election) then this is effectively the same as RON*. But it may not be; for instance US Senators are elected, but vacancies are filled with appointment by the state's governor; the President is elected, but a vacancy is filled by the Vice-President; VP vacancies are filled by Presidential appointment and confirmation by both Houses of Congress.
A third possible result is that the office will sit unfilled for one term and its powers cannot be exercised for that term. This is more common with elections to committees or parliaments than for executive office - the parliament is just one member short for a few years.
In a primary election, the result of NOTA winning is usually that that party will not contest the election. In primaries that are closed, especially ones that are narrowly closed (like US caucuses, or French-style primaries that are only open to dues-paying members), the option not to contest the election may be used to concentrate the party's resources on particular elections.
* There may be technical differences between a by-election and a rerun of the normal election. For example, in the UK, the expenditure limits are higher for by-elections than for re-run elections. In the US, different rules may apply for primary elections for a special election than apply for a general election, and not all states have rules for a rerun general election at all (reruns can apply if, for example, a candidate dies too late for their name to be removed from ballots, as well as for a victory by NOTA/RON).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/None_of_the_above has some examples:
Greece (λευκό, white, but unrelated to a political party of the similarly sounding name-however it is symbolic only), the U.S. state of Nevada (None of These Candidates), Ukraine (Проти всіх), Spain (voto en blanco), and Colombia (voto en blanco). Russia had such an option on its ballots (Против всех) until it was abolished in 2006. Bangladesh introduced this option (না ভোট) in 2008.
Election Commission of India, introduced the option "None of the above" (or NOTA) in the year 2009 and by the order of the Supreme Court of India in 2013, it became mandatory to be present in all forms of public election.
Since 2013, it has been observed, that in Indian elections it has been gaining traction a lot, and according to Wikipedia, it has been observed it has influenced in increasing the participation in elections. Though it has not gained a majority of votes in any of the elections, there are quite a few examples, where it has got enough votes to swing the election results if it wouldn't have been there. For example, the number of votes NOTA, if hypothetically, all those votes would have gone to another candidate, the result would have been in his/her favour.
According to clarification given by Election Commission, even if the NOTA gets the highest number of votes, the candidate scoring the highest number of votes excluding the NOTA would be considered winner, but still, NOTA has enabled people to raise their voice, that they don't approve any current candidate contesting elections and hence might compel all the parties to field a better candidate
More can be read by Performance of NOTA on Wikipedia
