Are any statistics available on ballots for president that are filled in with ineligible names? Things like fictional characters, dead people, animals, children, non-citizens, etc.? Occasionally the paper will have a fluff piece on humorous ballots, but does anyone keep a tally of these?
Mr. Potatohead once got 4 votes in an election for governor (of Ohio, IIRC)
I voted for myself once, a long time ago… but I didn’t win…
In Houston, the “registered” write in candidates are posted in the voting booths.
I don’t know how you register.
The other write in votes are not counted.
I remember seeing a local election tally online that said Richard Grayson got a vote for president.
Dick Grayson. The first Robin. I have to wonder if anyone voted for Batman.
I heard somewhere (and I don’t know how valid this is), that Mickey Mouse actually gets a substantial number of write-ins every presidential election. I bet everyone who does it thinks they’re the first one too 
Just thought that was kinda interesting…
Pat Paulsen was this comic from the 60s and 70s who did the TV comedy/variety show circuit and every 4 years, he’d announce his campaign for the Presidency. I wonder how many votes he totalled each year?
Ghods, how I wish I could’ve written HIS name on the ballot this year.
Zippy the Pinhead got over 2000 votes in the 1988 election.
I think that Bill and Opus probably still get some write in vots…
Figuring a healthy dude like me can attain the average life expectancy of 70 years, I should get to vote 12 more times. Very likely the candidates will suck so I have already prepared my 12 write-in votes:
Marvin the Martian
Cecil
Jessica Rabbit
Yoda
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Peter Parker
Sherlock Holmes
George Bush III
John Woo
Shoeless Joe Jackson
Siddharta Gautama, The Buddha.
The Antichrist
Gregory R. Smith
Yeah, those are 13 names but I am quessing the last two ones might be the same person.
Yoda or Yogurt? A dilemma for the ages.
The Onion posted a “list” of the most written-in candidates. My favorite was “Haywood Jablowmi”, but they made up some other good ones too.
I once got several votes for county coroner.
I voted for Mr Potatohead once, in a San Francisco election about 12 years ago. To this day I still believe he would have done a better job than the numpty who actually won the ballot.
I ran for mayor of Tacoma, WA when I was 18. I was not on the ballot, but I was registered as an official write-in candidate.
Registering for a write-in was fairly simple; I just filled out a form. It was also free (unlike a ballot registration, which required $400 or 400 petition signatures.)
I read a thread on the Snopes message boards in which someone said Mickey may have received as many as 20,000 votes in some presidential elections.
I bet you’re right about people thinking they’re being original by voting for him.
Or maybe they just think he’d be a better president than either of the other two mickey-mouse candidates!
See, and people are blaming Nader for throwing the election to Bush. They should really be blaming Mickey!
I just caught the last half of “The Awful Truth” last week, but apparently Michael Moore was running a Ficus tree against some candidate (and encouraging others do to the same in their own districts) on the idea that a potted plant would be a better candidate that whoever was running. Did anyone have a “Ficus” show up on their vote counts?
<OBSCURE>And I’d expect Richard Kelton. But wouldn’t he be more likely to show up as Richard Benjamin’s running mate?</OBSCURE>
Here in Ireland a few years ago in our presidential election* a very popular charcater ( Dustin the Turkey ) from a kids programme started a mock run for president. He actually got more votes in parts of Dublin than one of the real candidates, Austin Currie ( all our elections are hand counted and although they were spoiled votes the no.'s were kept )
- Our President is a figure head and has no real constitutional power.
The Washington Post said (yesterday I think) in an article about the handcount of write-in ballots in Florida that so many votes were for Gore, so many votes were for Bush, and there was one vote for “Jesus.”