What about a yes or no vote (read first post)

[°Leprechaun]

What if you had a 'yes/no' choice? You only get one vote. You can vote *for* your
favorite candidate or "no" on the one you don't like.
Wouldn't it have been easier for those who didn't like any of the candidates,
to vote "NO" on one of them instead of having to vote for someone that
they really didn't want?
What do you think?
This is how it would work. Every candidate would have his no votes subtracted
from his/her yes votes, if One person gets 40 million yes votes and
4 million no votes s/he ends up with 36 million votes.
Theoretically, someone could win with a negative number of votes.
Let's say there are five candidates, four of them get a negative
two million and one gets a negative one million. The one with
a negative one million wins.
Does this sound wacky?
Well, I like the idea because it would mean that nobody would ever again
feel the pressure to vote for the 'lesser of two evils'.

[TheWildCard]

1 on 1 it would not make a difference I would probably vote Yes to my candidate.

If there are multiple candidates running I would vote for my candidate unless he had no chance of winning.

[angus]

it's an interesting idea.  I think wildcard's right in the sense that if there are only two, most folks will check YES on the one they like and NO on the one they don't, and the winner would have been the winner anyway, but by exactly twice the actual voter margin.  On multiple candidate ballots, such as are typical for president and governor, it would at least be more entertaining to try and think who your serious least favorite is.  On balance, I say the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.  We already have enough negative, and too little positive, campaigning without adding this tremendous incentive.  Disagree.

[muon2]

There is a danger with this in races with three or more candidates where one or more are fringe candidates. The fringe candidates can pick up no votes and skew the election between the main contenders. I don't mind third parties who draw positive support, but I would be troubled by third parties who serve to draw negative support from a less-desirable major candidate.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Wow, negative campaigns could backfire. For example, imagine

Bush 20 million yes votes, 30 million no votes
Kerry 20 million yes votes, 30 million no votes
Random crazy 1 yes no vote, 0 no votes.