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A Modest Proposal – Let’s Allow Negative Voting
Election years are filled to overflowing with political pitches beseeching voters to cast ballots for a particular candidate. And many people do, although often with scant enthusiasm. “Choosing between the lesser of two evils” is a commonly heard complaint among voters.

During election campaigns, one also is apt to receive political advertisements providing him with reasons to believe that a candidate is undesirable — the famous “attack ad” that so many politicians denounce but will readily employ when it suits their purposes. The content might be true and compelling or it might be false and misleading (just like other political advertising) but the objective is always to drive up an opponent’s political “negatives.”

This sets up an odd asymmetry. Positive ads attempt to persuade you to vote for a candidate and you can do that. Negative ads give you reasons to vote against a candidate, but you can’t do that. Americans are not given the option of casting a vote that says, “I DON’T WANT this individual to serve as _________.” ...