{"id":5331,"date":"2009-06-07T09:13:23","date_gmt":"2009-06-07T16:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cityofsmoke.com\/?p=5331"},"modified":"2009-06-07T09:19:30","modified_gmt":"2009-06-07T16:19:30","slug":"requiescat-ld-knox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cityofsmoke.com\/archives\/5331","title":{"rendered":"Requiescat L.D. Knox"},"content":{"rendered":"
O<\/span>n May 29, 2009, The New York Times<\/em> published the obituary<\/a> of L. D. “None of the Above” Knox, 80, a farmer and politician from Winnsboro, Louisiana who had crusaded for over forty years to make “None of the Above” an option on the Pelican State’s ballots.<\/p>\n In 1979, he went so far as to make “None of the Above” his additional middle name and used it thereafter whenever he ran for office.\u00a0 The Times <\/em>states:<\/p>\n His aim—allowing voters to call for a new election with new candidates by voting for “none of the above”—remained his main plank in subsequent elections.<\/em><\/p>\n “The people of this country have never had a free election,” he said in 1991.\u00a0 “We don’t have a right to reject candidates.\u00a0 We have to take the lesser of the evils.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n From his notices in papers across Louisiana, Mr. Knox seems to have been well-liked and respected, although most of his electoral defeats were one-sided blowouts.<\/p>\n