Every once in a while, you hear some story about Mickey Mouse, Zonker Harris, Darth Vader, or some other fictional character getting a vote or two as a write-in. Suppose that a fictional character actually received the majority of the votes for some office. What would happen? Would it just be ignored and the office would go to whoever came in second? Would a new election have to be called? Could the character’s creator have a claim to the office? [Insert obvious joke about how Karl Rove would be President under that rule.] Are there any rules in any jurisdiction that cover this scenario?
They aren’t votes, they are spoiled ballots or abstentions so yes, the candidate with the most valid votes would be elected (provided that he attained whatever threshhold was imposed, if any)
Actually, I recall that when I was in college “Bart Simpson” won a seat on the student senate. And yeah, I believe that the result was as mangetout described.
John Ashcroft lost a senate election to one.
If the ballots are cast for someone who is not qualified for the office, they are decleared invalid. This would include someone who isn’t a resident of the district, for instance.
We elected a dead man as our town supervisor in the 80s; the incumbent died a week before the election, and no one wanted to vote for the Republican, so they voted for the dead man. Since he was on the ballot, the votes counted. Since he was dead, they held another election a month or two later.
In a related note,
IIRC, a major fuss was brought forth, when " Jedi " (Star Wars Reference) was decared the race of a substantial populous. Was this US or AUS, Taxes or Census ??
It made the news, but I dont recall the eventual outcome, can anyone help me on this?
What, you couldn’t find a yellow dog? 
I believe that was the UK census, although it could have happened other places as well.
I recall that a few years back, a message circulated on the internet telling people to mark ‘Jedi’ as their official religion on the census (this was in England). Apparently some obscure law stated that if enough people listed it, then Jedis would become an officially recognized religion and would get tax-exempt status and other priveleges. I don’t know what the eventual outcome was.
A couple other questions about the electoral process:
What happens if there isn’t a single valid vote for some office? Unlikely, I know, but it is physically possible.
What happens if a person wins an election as a write-in, but they don’t actually want the job?
What happens if a certain name wins as a write-in, but there are two people in that jurisdiction with that exact name?
Last census here in Australia, in 2001, there was a campaign going to get people to put Jedi as their religion, too. Supposedly it would be an officially recognised religion if a certain number of people nominated it as their religion. However, the Census Bureau said that it wouldn’t be recognised because there was no code for Jedi in the results processing. The computer would only recognise the list of religions and belief systems that was coded for the census or something like that. But they did say in consolation, “if these people really believe they are Jedis, who are we to say they are not?” LOL.
some related questions.
What if I knew there was going to be a bunch of spoiler votes for a particular charactor (say Bart Simpson), enough to win an election, and changed my name to Bart Simpson before the election. Assuming a majority voted for Bart Simpson would I get elected?
What if Bart Simpson just happened to be name my Mom gave me?
I think at that point some aspiring young buck takes advantage of the general apathy of the area and turns it into a dictatorship.
In the case of a vacancy in the U.S. Congress, the governor of that state has the priviledge of appointing a replacement until the next election. Each state constituion or statutes has a process by which an unexpectedly empty seat in the state legislature is filled. In some states the seat is left vacant until the next election.
Same as if an elected candidate had died before assuming office.
In my state, the state election commission decides such disputes. If either of the write-in candidate disputes the commission’s decision, he or she can go to court about it.
I believe it was the UK Census, but it wasn’t race, it was religion. It made news, IIRC, because it was the first time you could write in any religion instead of picking from a list. So a whole bunch of jokers wrote in “Jedi”.
IIRC, the Jedi thing was rather frowned upon by the census authorities, but they said it wouldn’t establish anything - the ‘jedi’ results just got lumped into ‘other/not specified’.
The person voted for is the person voted for. You are not going to get elected unless you get votes. One doesn’t get votes by having the same name as someone who got votes, let alone if those votes weren’t even valid because they were for a non-person.
Sheesh. Or am I being whooshed here?
Blimey!
Most simple elections work something like this:
-A number of candidates stand - the candidates have to be real individuals
-Votes for eachndidate are counted
-Ballot papers with ‘Votes’ for a name other than one of the candidates (being a person real or othewise), along with those upon which people have written abusive graffiti, scribbles and other invalid votes are counted as ‘spoiled’
-There may be a separate count of papers marked ‘abstain’ or ‘none of the above’, and those that are blank.
-The candidate receiving the most votes is elected (unless he falls short of some required threshold).
It may be that, if there is a significant number of ballot papers ‘spoiled’ in the same specific way (such as those marked with votes for Mickey Mouse), that the count of these papers is mentioned as an amusing footnote, but they are still spoiled papers and are invalid as votes.
I have seen this for Senate vacancies, but not for vacancies in the House of Representatives. It seems to me that House seats usually stay vacant until the next general election. But I could be wrong.
With regard to those Senate appointments, they are usually effective for no more than two years, and the seat opens up for election, even if the seat is not of that year’s class. (For those who don’t know, U.S. Senate seats are divided into three classes, with one third of the terms expiring every two years.) Then the seat is opened up for election again with its own class, which could be two or four years later.
This varies by state. Some states will replace Representatives, but since the term is only two years, most states just say “Fuck it. It can stay vacant until the next general election.”
Vacancies in the House are filled only by special elections. The governors of each state have to call for the election and the procedure for doing so varies from state to state.