Who are “protest voters” and do they affect elections? We study this question using the introduction of a pure protest option (“None Of The Above” (NOTA)) on Indian ballots. Using structural estimation, we find that in elections without NOTA, most protest voters simply abstain. Protest voters who turn out scatter their votes among many candidates and consequently have little impact on election results. From a policy perspective, NOTA may be an effective tool to increase political participation, and can attenuate the electoral impact of compulsory voting.

中文翻译：

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以上都不是：世界上最大民主的抗议投票

谁是“抗议选民”，他们会影响选举吗？我们通过在印度选票上引入纯粹的抗议选项（“以上都不是”（NOTA））来研究这个问题。使用结构估计，我们发现在没有 NOTA 的选举中，大多数抗议选民只是弃权。结果出来的抗议选民将选票分散在许多候选人中，因此对选举结果几乎没有影响。从政策的角度来看，NOTA 可能是提高政治参与度的有效工具，可以减弱强制投票对选举的影响。