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A write-in candidate is a candidate in an election whose name does not appear on the ballot, but for whom voters may vote nonetheless by writing in the person's name. Write-in candidates rarely win, and votes are often cast for ineligible people or fictional characters. Most jurisdictions require write-in candidates to be registered as candidates before the election. This is usually mandatory in elections with large pools of potential office-holders, as there may be multiple people with the name that is written in.
Write-in candidates are a holdover from the time when ballot papers were blank, and had no names printed on them at all. Gradually, the ballots were arranged to have all the names of the candidates printed on them, with a "write-in" provision for latecomers.
United States
Typically, write-in candidates have a very small chance of winning, but there have been some notable write-in candidates in the past.
Senate
- Republican Strom Thurmond in 1954 was elected to the United States Senate in South Carolina as a write-in candidate.
House of Representatives
- Democrat Dale Alford was elected as a write-in candidate to the United States House of Representatives in Arkansas in 1958.
- In 1930 Republican Charles F. Curry, Jr. was elected as a write-in from Sacramento, California. His father, Congressman Charles Curry Sr., was to appear on the ballot, but due to his untimely death his name was removed and no candidate's name appeared on the ballot.
- Republican Joe Skeen was elected as a write-in candidate to Congress in New Mexico in 1980.
- Independent Ron Packard was elected to the House in California in 1982 and was the only write-in candidate to defeat the candidates of the Democratic and Republican parties. He immediately aligned himself with the Republican party after the election.
- Democrat Charlie Wilson, was the intended Democratic candidate for the 6th Congressional District in Ohio to replace Ted Strickland in 2006. Strickland was running for governor and would be giving up his congressional seat. Wilson, though, did not qualify for the ballot because only 46 of the 96 signatures on his candidacy petition were deemed valid, while 50 valid signatures were required for ballot placement. The Democratic Party continued to support Wilson, and an expensive primary campaign ensued. Over $1 million was spent by both parties. Wilson overwhelmingly won the Democratic primary as a write-in candidate on May 2, 2006 against two Democratic candidates whose names were on the ballot, with Wilson collecting 44,367 votes, 67% of the Democratic votes cast. Wilson will face Republican Chuck Blasdel in the general election on November 7, 2006.
State Legislatures
- Charlotte Burks was a write-in candidate for Tennessee State Senate after the death of her husband, Tommy. She ran against Byron Looper, the man who had murdered her husband.
Mayors/City Councils
- Tom Ammiano, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, entered the race for Mayor of San Francisco, California as a write-in candidate two weeks before the 1999 general election. He received 25% of the vote, coming in second place and forcing incumbent Mayor Willie Brown into a runoff election, which Brown won by margin of 59% to 40%. In 2001, the campaign was immortalized in the award-winning documentary film See How They Run.
- Donna Frye ran as a write-in candidate for Mayor of San Diego, California in 2004. A controversy erupted when several votes for her were not counted because the voters had failed to fill in the bubble next to the write-in line. Had those votes been counted, she would have won the election.
- James Maher won the mayorship of Baxter Estates, New York on March 15, 2005 as a write-in candidate with 29 votes. Being the only one on the ballot, the incumbant mayor, James Neville, did not campaign, as he did not realize that there was a write-in campaign going on. Neville received only 13 votes .
- Michael Sessions, an 18-year-old high school senior, won as a write-in candidate for Mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan in 2005. He was too young to qualify for the ballot in the spring.
- Anthony A. Williams, the Washington, DC Mayor was forced to run as a write-in candidate in the 2002 Democratic primary, because he had too many invalid signatures for his petition. He won the Democratic primary, and went on to win re-election.
Others
- John Adams became an Orange County, California judge in November 2002 after running along with 10 other write-in candidates in the primaries on March 5, 2002 against incumbent Judge Ronald Kline . After the filing deadline in which no candidate filed to run against Kline, a computer hacker discovered that Judge Kline had child pornography on his home computer . Kline got less than 50% of the vote in the primaries, requiring a runoff between him and write-in candidate John Adams (who actually received more votes than Kline) Orange County Registrar of Voters Election Results for March 5, 2002. After some legal maneuvers, Kline's name was removed from the general elections, leaving the general election a runoff between Adams and Gay Sandoval, who was the second highest write-in vote getter nge County Registrar of Voters Election Results for November 5, 2002. Charges against Kline were eventually thrown out .
International
In most jurisdictions around the world, write-in candidates are not recognised.
A strange incident involving a fictitious write-in candidacy occurred in the small town of Picoazà, Ecuador in 1967. A company ran a series of campaign-themed advertisements for a foot powder called Pulvapies. Some of the slogans used included "Vote for any candidate, but if you want well-being and hygiene, vote for Pulvapies", and "For Mayor: Honorable Pulvapies." The foot powder Pulvapies ended up receiving the most votes in the election.Urban Legends Reference Page: (Politics) Political Podiatry
Pop Culture
During the 2000 United States Congress Elections, filmmaker Michael Moore led a campaign for voters to submit a ficus tree as a write-in candidate. This campaign was replicated across the country and was recounted in an episode of The Awful Truth.
Notes
"Write-in candidate"