No Elimination

In many games, it is possible to end the daytime phase by a majority of players voting for "No Lynch". No one dies during the daytime phase, and night falls.

The appropriateness of this strategy has been much debated, but it generally comes down to two things: preserving favorable voting ratios (see Numbers, Part 1), or waiting for investigations. It becomes more strategically viable in the endgame, when an extra vote or investigation may make the difference between Lynch-or-Lose and having an extra chance. Conversely, it is frequently put forward early in the game as a strategy by newbie Scum, to try to divert the town from using their most powerful weapon.

Certain Game Moderators handle No Lynch differently: for instance, one variation says that someone voting for "No Lynch" "goes home" and may not post for the rest of the Day, unless they later receive Votes totaling half of what would be required to lynch them.

It has been argued that in the early stages of the game, if it is known that the Mafia has fewer members than the town, it can be a valid tactic, for those with a good knowledge of math at least, to let the night phase go and handle investigations. For example, if it is known that there are 15 Town and 4 Mafia, the odds of lynching a townie on day one with limited information are much higher, therefore giving an extra kill to the Mafia. However, this is not the case. Voting No Lynch in the early game causes the town to lose one possible lynch, so instead of having 3 chances to find the mafia, they only have 2 chances.