Among presidential candidates who had candidates for presidential elector in states containing a majority of the electoral college, Evan McMullin easily received a greater share of his votes via write-ins than any other presidential candidate.
McMullin was on the ballot in eleven states: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia. These states represented only 16% of the electorate. From those eleven states, he received 510,002 votes. In the states that counted his write-ins, he received 221,267. This means 30.3% of all his votes were write-ins. Never before had a presidential candidate of significance received such a high proportion of his votes as write-ins.
Prior to McMullin, the presidential candidates who received the largest share of their votes as write-ins were Eugene McCarthy in 1976, and Ralph Nader in 1996 and 2004. But neither of them received write-ins amounting to more than one-eighth of their totals.
The final McMullin vote will be increased when Rhode Island finishes tallying its presidential write-ins, which may be as early as January 4, 2017.
I assume that these votes were counted because McMullin went through the process of -inhaving himself declared a registered write-in in the states where he failed to qualify for a printed ballot line. One question that I have is whether states that allow registered write ins for President require the candidate to identify a slate of electors. I’ve read conflicting statements on this point. If a candidate can qualify as a registered write-in without identifying a slate of electors, it seems to me that being a registered write in serves little purpose — there would be no difference between writing in Evan McMullin or writing in Ronald McDonald.
If this is the case, I’m willing to bet that this little factoid is not well-known to the average voter.
I wonder how many more votes he’d have gotten if he’d filed all the ballot-access lawsuits he talked about.
TomP, the requirements to be a certified write-in candidate varies depending on the state. Some just require paperwork, some require at least 1elector, some require a full slate, some require electors and petition signers. The main difference for being a certified write-in is to get your own distinct count of your votes, rather than having them just be lumped into undifferentiated write-in total.
TomP,
It depends on the State. The answers are not necessarily in conflict, but that there are 51 different answers, and they differ from State to State.
I’m one of the 7071 Missourians who wrote him on my ballot.
I think it’s highly likely he’ll be running for the Senate seat next year in Utah when Orrin Hatch (another guy who I would have liked to seen get elected president, 16 years ago) retires.
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Interesting! Thank you!
Mark, Senator Hatch just said “he may not be ready to give up the ghost.” As far as his 2000 presidential campaign went, he needed a better slogan than,”Here I Am!”
I can’t find where write-ins are tabulated. When I look at a typical state’s secretary of state final election results, they just lump all the write-ins together as a category, even in a document that is hundreds of pages long and which supposedly encompasses ALL election results. Where can one find a FULL accounting of election results, either state-by-state or federal-wide, in which ALL write-ins are listed name by name? Or does nobody actually bother unless the write-in seems close to winning? If so, how does anyone know how exactly how many write-in votes McMullin or any other write-in candidate actually got?
Lots of neo-cons and Deep State spooks voted for him.
McMuffin is a communist.