In the bast, both Lex Luthor and Llewellyn the Dragon (from Ozy and Millie webcomics) both “ran” for President of the United States.
In the past , I mean.
I don’t know where you live, but you describe a system where all write-in candidates are invalid. In most of the United States, write-in candidates are allowed.
Snopes on the “Jedi” religion selection. It’s false.
I would be interested in an authoritative answer to the “Bart Simpson” question, as the thought has occured to me in the past as well.
Right. The Senate and the House differ. Vacancies in the House can be filled only by election, while vacancies in the Senate can be filled temporarily by appointment.
For the House:
Article 1, Section 2:
For the Senate:
I’m not sure what you mean; I’m describing a system where valid votes can only be cast in favour of one (or more) of the persons who have put themselves forward as interested in being elected; votes for some other person than one of the candidates (such as a random stranger off the street) are not valid. Could you give a little more detail?
If Michael Moore is to be believed, the current POTUS is fictitious. 
Mangetout, I don’t know how to explain this any simpler. I’m guessing from your spelling of “favour” that you’re not from the U.S. In every state of the U.S. that I am aware of, voters always have the option of writing in the name of a different person instead of voting on one of the candidates whose name is printed on the ballot. For example, the late Strom Thurmond of North Carolina won the Democratic Primary for the United States Senate in 1954 as a write-in candidate. His name did not appear on the ballots in the state of North Carolina.
I am a local election official. Some people write in the names of candidates who failed to get their party’s nomination, some people write in their own names, some people write in the names of fictitious characters. After we close the polls, we dutifully count every write-in vote, and certify those votes just as we certify votes for candidates whose names appear on the ballots. We do not invalidate those votes. If by chance Mickey Mouse would get the plurality of votes in any election, Mr. Mouse would have to step forward and offer proof that he met the qualifications for the office.
As for the experience of John Ashcroft, although the ballots in the Senatorial election listed Mel Carnahan as the Democratic candidate, it was understood at the time that his wife Jean would serve in his place. Governor Carnahan, it will be remembered, died in a plane crash shortly before the election.
Interestingly, Ashcroft said that it would not be legal for her to beat him this way. It was on the strength of legal analysis of this sort that he was appointed Attorney General.
The Progressive magazine once reported that a bill was introduced in Georgia requiring the state to only report the election returns for candidates who won 5% or more of the popular vote. This was because of the continual popularity of “Donald Duck” as a write-in. Jimmy Carter has described in interviews how, during his first term in the Georgia legislature, it was proposed that dead people be allowed to vote for a set number of years after they expired. It was argued that their survivors would know how they had intended to vote and could cast the ballots for them.
When I was in high school, the administration always reported student council election returns as percentages, rather than as numbers: Smith 51.5%, Johnson 49.5%. In my senior year I was an officer on the council, and one of my last acts was helping to tabulate the votes for next year’s council. I soon realized why they always did this; it was to avoid reporting: "Smith, 35%, Johnson, 34%, Alfred E. Neuman, 6%, Mickey Mouse, 5%…
There comes to mind a particularly silly EC Comics story (it was in either Tales from the Crypt or one of the science fiction titles), in which “Allie Gator”, a popular puppet on television modeled after Ollie of Kukla, Fran and Ollie, announces he is running for President. So many people write in for him as a protest vote that he actually gets elected, and The Supreme Court rules that, as the puppet is actually an alter ego of the puppeteer, the puppeteer has been elected. That’s when he reveals the horrifying truth: Allie Gator is alive!
Aw, man! Spoiler box next time, slipster! 
Just a nitpick. Thurmond was from South Carolina.
In most U.S. states, it is perfectly valid to vote a “random stranger off the street” who has not put himself forward as interested in being elected. If such a person gets the most votes, then it’s up to him to state after the vote is certified whether he’s interested in taking office or not. This is informally referred to as a “draft.”
I was advised by an Illinois poll worker in 1992 that I was not allowed to write in a candidate on my Democratic primary ballot. If I did so it would be considered a spoiled ballot. I did it anyway. I never followed up since I moved out of state several months later. Anyone know about Illinois election law and primaries?
Also still looking for an answer on the Bart Simpson question. My WAG is that Bart could claim the office, since with a secret ballot how could any voters be contacted to determine if they meant to vote for that Bart Simpson or not? Sound right?
OK, not only am I grateful for the information but I am totally freaked out that the referenced city and county is where I was living at the time!
Well, you learn something new every day; I’d never heard of write-in votes until now - every election I’ve ever seen here in the UK (including non-governmental ones such as elections for union representatives, allotment association committees, etc.) follows the basic assumption that candidates have to willingly stand or be nominated, rather than be persuaded to take the position after a completely unexpected (on their part) landslide.
But what about those politicians in the UK who are willing to be candidates but are not nominated by a party? Are they not given any opportunity to run or stand or otherwise attempt to attain elective office?
Otto you don’t have to be affiliated with a party to be a candidate in Australian and I’m pretty sure the UK is the same. You just pay a small fee and you go on the list of candidates. Such people are usually referred to as “independants” and they do get elected, though only comparatively rarely.