Republican lawmaker files bill to allow voters to choose “none of the above”

Some voters this election may have been disappointed in their choices. A proposal in the Texas legislature wants to give Texans the option of selecting "none of the above."

One of the hundreds and hundreds of bill proposals filed in Austin ahead of next year's legislative session is House Bill 1476 by Houston-area Republican Valoree Swanson.

The bill states: “Voters shall be given the opportunity to select "None of the above" instead of voting for a candidate appearing on the ballot or the list of write-in candidates for each race.”

The idea may sound familiar to North Texans. During the election, sensing opposition to both former President Trump, and then candidate, and President Joe Biden, a North Richland Hills 7th grade math teacher changed his name to "Literally Anybody Else" and ran for president.

“America wants something different. We want something better. We deserve something better," he told NBC 5 over the summer.

He didn't win. Josh Blank, researchers and pollster at the University of Texas at Austin says that will fit with this "none of the above" proposal.

"Voters already have the ability to express their displeasure with the candidates by simply not showing up or leaving that particular race blank. And many voters choose not to vote in all of the races that are available to them."

People who don't like their choices usually don't show up on election day, Blank says, A similar measure on ballots in Nevada gets around one or two percent every election. The proposed change, however, will create more grey areas for candidates and politicians.

"It's hard to imagine that it doesn't insert more uncertainty into the process and given the scrutiny that we place on ballots in Texas, it's hard to imagine how people would react if the feeling was that this influenced the outcome," said Blank.

Most bill proposals do not survive the 140-day legislative session to become law. Rep. Swanson did not return an interview request on her proposal by the time this story was published.