Social Question

rebbel's avatar

What would happen if nobody turned up in a general election?

Asked by rebbel (35553points) September 26th, 2019

Are there rules for when there is nobody showing up?
Would the politicians know what to do next?
Would the sitting president/prime minister just stay put?
Would they find different methods of choosing who’s to be the leader?

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17 Answers

Zaku's avatar

Define nobody.

There are rules in smaller voting systems where it is actually possible no one will show up, or where the people designing the voting system were sensitive to the need to have enough people vote.

Having enough people to hold a vote is called a “quorum”.

Most government elections do not require any quorum, but also always a countable number of people vote, even for empty judge chairs.

rebbel's avatar

Nobody, as in “not a body (human)”
Zilch, zero, nada.

As a statement of mistrust by a whole people.
A figurative middle finger.

Zaku's avatar

There are rules and it would depend on the race in question. Zero zilch nada never occurs except possibly in very small races. Ties and disputes do, and also have similar or the same sort of rules. Some involve no selection, many involve the judiciary branch making a ruling (see Gore vs. Bush), or the legislative branch, and some involve another election.

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

The answers to all life’s problems are here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVZh4WcdC3s

rebbel's avatar

@lucillelucillelucille This has, potentially, a good question in it.

Funky stuff, from my favorite time period!

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

I will have to remember that. XD

LadyMarissa's avatar

I read a lot of crap while trying to find a decent answer to this Q &:this was the best I found. It applies to the US only. It also gives me a greater urgency to vote as I don’t trust the legislators of my state to have my best interest at heart!!!

ucme's avatar

The politik-ians would look at one another in a rather perplexed fashion, then tootle off home to ponder why nobody rocked up to their party.

LuckyGuy's avatar

Don’t even suggest it! That would allow the narcissist running for office to swing the vote by voting for himself.
He would laugh all the way to the office. “Look! The vote is unanimous!!! I got all the votes!”

If you want to show displeasure, Vote! and pick the least bad option.

Darth_Algar's avatar

The candidates decide the contest by roshambo’ing each other for it.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

@Darth_Algar Would have worked well for Hillary.

Patty_Melt's avatar

Arm wrestle!

mazingerz88's avatar

trump will declare a billion people voted for him.

LadyMarissa's avatar

@LuckyGuy In the reading that I did, there was one city in Calif that in 2016 only had 250.000 out of 3 million voted for the mayor, so they declared the election null & void & held another election. That gives me hope that voting for himself wouldn’t be enough to get him reelected!!!

Sagacious's avatar

It would be a tie and there would have to be another one.

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