Reader Aaron from East Cobb , Georgia save in to ask,“When I vote , if a candidate is running unopposed , I will often cast a write - in vote for a fictional part ( e.g. Kermit the Frog ) . Does someone actually tally and memorialise such votes , and is there anywhere I can go to see if he got any other votes ? ”
It look on where the ballot is sick , because state and local jurisprudence and election codification vary . In many places , write - in balloting are not a free - for - all , and election boards do n’t enumerate or record a write - in suffrage if it ’s not for an prescribed write - in prospect in a given slipstream . * In Cochise County , Arizona , for example , a write - in for an unofficial campaigner has “ the same effect as not vote at all in that backwash . ” The vote is n’t counted or even register as a vote , and show up as an “ under vote ” in the final outcome .
Elsewhere , illicit write - in votes are weigh , even if they do n’t in reality count . In Georgia and Texas , for example , write - ins for unofficial nominee do n’t mean anything to the election , but some counties will still tally the invalid votes and/or keep lists of the names that were write in and issue them in election account . In Clarke County , Georgia ’s write - in report card from the 2012 general election , Charles Darwin get some 4,000 votesin the 10th Congressional District airstream . The election charge for the US territory of Guam also tabularise and publish the write - in votes cast in the island ’s election . you’re able to see their2014 drop a line - in story here .
Whether you ’re just getting a laugh by vote for Mickey Mouse for president or expressing you dissatisfaction with the nominee whoarerunning , elections officials all over would really like it if you did n’t save in joke balloting or unofficial candidates . balloting with write - in vote commonly have to be coiffure aside and canvas by an elections functionary so they can decipher the elector ’s handwriting , mold their spirit , and compare the vote to the tilt of official write - in candidates — all of which costs prison term , work force and municipal money .
- Who is and is n’t an official write - in prospect also varies from place to position . make into the race in Texas means register a Declaration of Write - in electioneering with the Secretary of State or a county judge , and either paying a filing fee or experience a nominating request with a certain number of signatures . Aspiring write - in candidates in Georgia , meanwhile , need only run a notice of their purport to run as a write - in in a newspaper and send the same notice and an affidavit to the appropriate officials
