Have you ever wished you could choose “None of the Above” on an election ballot? In 2016, voters in the Whitby—Oshawa federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, got that option. A 46-year-old man, formerly known as Sheldon Bergson, spent $137 to legally change his name to Above Znoneofthe, got 25 voters to sign his nomination papers, and registered with Elections Ontario to run. Since the candidates' names appeared on the ballot in alphabetical order, his was the 10th of the 10 candidates. There was just one small hitch in his plan. On the election ballots, candidates’ names are printed with first name, then last name. So, instead of appearing as “Znoneofthe Above, it appeared as “Above Znoneofthe.” Znoneofthe said he was trying to give an option to people who were fed up with voting over and over for the main parties and seeing nothing change. Needless to say, he didn’t win the election, but he did elect to keep the name.
