HOF voter misinterprets rules, submits blank ballot

The 2017 Hall of Fame class has landed its second blank ballot.

Bill Livingston of The Cleveland Plain Dealer submitted his ballot this week, choosing not to vote for any of the nominees. Livingston claimed he abstained on his ballot, but by signing and submitting it, he in fact misinterpreted the rules, and his non-votes count against everyone on the ballot.

Nominees require 75 percent of the vote of all the submitted ballots in order to be elected into the Hall of Fame. By sending off a blank ballot, those players not voted for will see a decrease in their percentage.

Livingston said that there were a number of reasons for his blank ballot, and that he won't vote again until baseball decides to do something about the "elephant in the room, the so-called steroid era."

He went on to say that he previously voted for PED users, but stopped because he was "unhappy about cheating the innocent," before concluding that MLB should devise a formal ruling on the steroid era.

Former New York Times and Associated Press writer Murray Chass also submitted a blank ballot earlier this month. His argument for not voting for anyone was that he didn't believe there were any nominees worth inducting into Cooperstown, and those that were worthy used PEDs.

This year's ballot includes a number of players either linked with or suspected of using PEDs, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez, and Sammy Sosa. There are also, however, a number of players on the ballot who have never been linked to PEDs, including Vlad Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, and Tim Raines.