[fhdkweig]

> Another solution to our existing problems in western democracies would be a mechanism to select 'none of the above' on a ballot. If a super majority of the electorate chooses the 'none of the above' option than that election is a do-over and the candidates who ran are forbidden from running in that jurisdiction for a period of time -- let's say five years.

If you are starting a new government from scratch, I think it would work. But bolting it onto an already broken system would create perverse incentives for the outgoing broken politicians to deliberately nominate terrible replacement candidates. If everyone chose 'none of the above', the broken politicians would get to stay in power forever (or alternatively the position is left vacant forever).

I am a big fan of rank-choice voting. I like the fact that the incumbent legislatures are scared of it. If they are scared, it must be a true threat to them. While this would be a threat to both Democrats and Republicans, it is mostly the red states that try to ban in, going so far as to amend their state constitutions. Alaska has/had it for a brief moment and as a result have a higher number of independents in their state. But even they have factions trying to undermine it.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=alaska+rank+choice+voting+r...

https://www.wptv.com/news/state/florida-bans-ranked-choice-v...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_Un...