# What happens if a write-in wins popular vote?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 8, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082 "2016-11-08T17:35:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mrdeals](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrdeals)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/1 "2016-11-08T17:35:08Z")
Lets say that there is a massive underground voting conspiracy, and tonight millions and millions of people are going to write in: “chuck Norris”
From my understanding most states have electors that must follow popular vote.
So what would happen if someone like Chuck Norris, who is (unfortunately) not running for president, gets a large quantity of votes anyway?
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/2 "2016-11-08T17:40:46Z")
From [Ballotpedia](https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_access_for_presidential_candidates):
“In 34 states, a write-in candidate must file some paperwork in advance of the election. In nine states, write-in voting for presidential candidates is not permitted. The remaining states do not require write-in candidates to file paperwork in advance of the election.”
Those 34 states include most of the largest states, so there’s no way a write-in candidate can win if he/she is not actually registered as a write-in candidate in those states.
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/3 "2016-11-08T17:55:47Z")
It’s the same as for a non-write-in candidate. If he wins a state (or Washington D.C.), he gets the electoral votes for that state. In Maine and Nebraska, if he wins a congressional district he gets the electoral vote for that district. If he gets at least 270 electoral votes, he wins the election. That’s how the presidential election system works.
There is such a thing as a “faithless elector.” In some states, an elector is free to vote for whomever he or she wants, regardless of whom he or she was chosen to vote for. Many states legally require electors to vote for the candidate they were chosen to represent, but occasionally one breaks the law. In any case, the fact that a candidate won a state isn’t an absolute guarantee that all the electors in that state will vote for him.
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### Author:  [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/4 "2016-11-08T18:15:48Z")
That’s an interesting question, Mrdeals. And I see what you mean. When you vote for president you’re actually voting for a set of electors chosen by that candidate (or his party).
In states where you must register as a write in candidate, you actually are registering the electors. For instance, this is from California…
> [@](#):
>
> Voters in the General Election are technically voting for the 55 Presidential Elector
> candidates, not directly for the candidates for President and Vice President. Therefore, in
> order to be a write-in presidential candidate, that candidate must have 55 write-in
> Presidential Elector candidates file papers pledging themselves to the presidential
> candidate.
For states where you don’t need to register as a write in candidate the answer seems to be… no one really knows. What would probably happen is the state legislature would choose the electors in that case. Hopefully they’d select ones who support the winning write in candidate, but wouldn’t have to.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/5 "2016-11-08T18:21:12Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#):
>
> It’s the same as for a non-write-in candidate. If he wins a state (or Washington D.C.), he gets the electoral votes for that state. In Maine and Nebraska, if he wins a congressional district he gets the electoral vote for that district. If he gets at least 270 electoral votes, he wins the election. That’s how the presidential election system works.
Electoral votes don’t exist in a theoretical sense. They are represented by Electors, actual people, that are really being voted on today. Who are the Electors for write in candidates who haven’t filed paperwork listing out those Electors?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/6 "2016-11-08T18:39:17Z")
> [@Pixel\_Dent](#):
>
> For states where you don’t need to register as a write in candidate the answer seems to be… no one really knows. What would probably happen is the state legislature would choose the electors in that case. Hopefully they’d select ones who support the winning write in candidate, but wouldn’t have to.
What the constitution says is this:
> [@](#):
>
> Each State shall appoint, **in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct,** a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress:
All states require that the electors be selected in accord with the popular vote (either winner take all, or proportionately in the case of Maine and Nebraska). So I think in the case of a write-in winner who had no previously assigned electors, the legislature would probably have to appoint ones.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/7 "2016-11-08T18:59:52Z")
> [@Pixel\_Dent](#):
>
> When you vote for president you’re actually voting for a set of electors chosen by that candidate (or his party).
So voters who think they’re writing in Chuck Norris to be President might actually be writing him in to be an elector. Norris would then cast his Electoral College vote for the candidate of his choice (I’m assuming Mike Huckabee).
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/8 "2016-11-08T19:26:03Z")
Except that nobody votes for a single elector. It’s always for a slate of electors. If the majority of voters in Wyoming (say) wrote in Norris, then you’d need _three_ Norris electors, not just one.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/9 "2016-11-08T22:53:18Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#):
>
> It’s the same as for a non-write-in candidate. If he wins a state (or Washington D.C.), he gets the electoral votes for that state. In Maine and Nebraska, if he wins a congressional district he gets the electoral vote for that district. If he gets at least 270 electoral votes, he wins the election. That’s how the presidential election system works…
I think the burning question, really, is how such a winner would be notified. So if Billy Bob McBob of Outer Trashtown is the subject/victim of a flash mob of write in votes even though he wasn’t campaigning, and somehow he wins, obviously he doesn’t have a registered campaign headquarters to notify or a communications infrastructure to keep things running. How would he get notified? Would he get a phone call? A letter? A midnight visit from the Secret Service? How much time would he have to select and appoint his Electors? Would a background check process to verify that he is a Natural Born Citizen begin immediately? What agency would perform it?
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2016, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-write-in-wins-popular-vote/771082/10 "2016-11-09T02:42:46Z")
What about John Smith? Which John Smith is it?