united-states elections
Who would have won the 2020 election if &quot;did not vote&quot; was a candidate
<p>This infographic was posted in 2016:
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/0mlrx.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/0mlrx.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a>
The image takes the assumption that all eligible voters (registered or not) in the US who did not vote instead voted for a hypothetical &quot;did not vote&quot; candidate. Similar claims are made every election, with similar results- &quot;did not vote wins by a landslide&quot;</p>
<p>However, 2020 had a much higher turnout. Would the results have still been a &quot;did not vote&quot; victory?</p>

<p>We don't know, because this is only vaguely an option <a href="https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-293.html#NRS293Sec269" rel="nofollow noreferrer">in Nevada</a>. In Nevada, &quot;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/None_of_These_Candidates" rel="nofollow noreferrer">none of the these candidates</a>&quot; is ignored in determining who wins:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Only votes cast for the named candidates shall be counted in
determining nomination or election to any statewide office or
presidential nominations or the selection of presidential electors,
but for each office the number of ballots on which the additional line
was chosen shall be listed following the names of the candidates and
the number of their votes in every posting, abstract and proclamation
of the results of the election.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, this does require that you vote. Some jurisdictions have provisions (for special levies) requiring a certain level of voter turnout to validate the levy, but no jurisdiction requires a minimum threshold of votes for elective office to deem that the winner actually wins.</p>
<p>States would have to pass laws allowing this to happen, for example directing that no electors shall be chosen if ___ (a majority of citizens over age 18 do not cast a presidential ballot?). In that case, the House of Representatives would decide who wins. Or, the Supreme Court would, because everybody and their horse would sue over the constitutionality of such a law.</p>

<p>I looked at the total eligible voters numbers from <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/voter-turnout-by-state" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> and the vote distribution <a href="https://cookpolitical.com/2020-national-popular-vote-tracker" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>. Unless I screwed up my combining the two data sets, there were no states in 2020 where &quot;Didn't vote&quot; was the plurality. Even if you combine &quot;Did not vote&quot; with the third party votes, that's not enough for a plurality.</p>
