Those Who Stayed Away

It was just about as bad as the pollsters had predicted. According to preliminary estimates, some 80 million Americans, or under 54% of the 150 million voting-age citizens in the U.S., took the trouble to step into balloting booths. The turnout in 1972, when the outcome was a foregone conclusion, was 55%. By contrast, 91% of the electorate recently cast ballots in West Germany and 90% in Sweden.

Most U.S. opinion polls had indicated that many voters would abstain not because they did not care but because they were disillusioned about government corruption and disappointed with the candidates. "I'm not apathetic about nonvoting," said Los Angeles Attorney Richard Deyo, 36, who had served as a volunteer for Republican stalwarts Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. "I'm emphatic about it."

In San Francisco, John Roscoe, 46, a grocery chain store president, laughed sardonically: "I'm a three-time loser. In 1964 I voted for the peace candidate --Johnson--and got war. In '68 I voted for the law-and-order candidate--Nixon--and got crime. In '72 I voted for Nixon again, and we got Watergate. I'm not going to vote this time."

In interviews with nonvoters across the nation, TIME correspondents noted that while some felt apologetic about abstaining, many were confident that they had taken the only proper action. Los Angeles Attorney Linda Abrams, 26, has been pasting stickers on her private letters that read: DON'T VOTE--IT ONLY ENCOURAGES THEM. A Phi Beta Kappa from U.C.L.A., Linda said, "The only way I would vote now would be if there were four categories: Democrat, Republican, No Preference and Abolish This Office."

Manhattan Adman Paul Hartnett went a step further. "I consider it my duty as a good citizen not to vote," he declared. "If 60% of the country did not vote, it might shake up the political process, and that would be fine because it needs shaking up." His reasoning: "If the people who voted for Nixon because they didn't like McGovern had not voted at all, Nixon would have won by a much smaller margin and might have behaved differently as President."

David Greenwald, 64, a fund raiser for philanthropic institutions in Manhattan, said withholding his vote was the most effective way for him to pass judgment on the candidates. "I'm expressing an opinion," he added. "I'm stating that both are bad."

Many ballot boycotters hoped that their actions would eventually lead to reforms. Lincoln, Neb., Stockbroker Don Geis, 41, coordinated Senator Frank Church's primary campaign in Nebraska, and was disgusted with the surviving candidate. He asked: "In a nation of over 200 million is this the best we can come up with?" Geis suggested that voting booths be outfitted with a category labeled NONE OF THE ABOVE. Said he: "If none of the above wins it, we should then start over until we come up with decent candidates."

His ideas were echoed by California Publicist Sy Leon, 53, who founded a League of Non-Voters and even coauthored a book entitled None of the Above. Said Leon: "I don't vote because I don't want to force a second-class decision on my neighbors." To propagate his views, Leon has been handing out bumper stickers by the scores. One of them reads: THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS IS EVIL.

Perhaps--but there is another point of view, and nobody ever phrased it better than Ogden Nash did in his memorable putdown of nonvoters:

They have such refined and delicate palates That they can discover no one worthy of their ballots. And then when someone terrible gets elected They say, There, that's just what I expected!

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