Editing Write-in candidate (section)

==Protest==
*In United States elections, write-in votes are sometimes cast for fictional characters, notably [[Mickey Mouse]], whose name usage as a protest vote has been attested since 1932.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://prospect.org/article/if-you-give-mouse-vote |title=If You Give a Mouse a Vote |last1=Fuller |first1=Jaime |date=November 5, 2013 |journal=[[The American Prospect]] |access-date=December 30, 2014 |archive-date=January 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114182610/http://prospect.org/article/if-you-give-mouse-vote |url-status=live }}</ref>
*[[Mad (magazine)|''Mad'' magazine]] satirically called to vote for [[Alfred E. Neuman]] as a write-in candidate for every U.S. presidential election from 1956 to 1980 with slogans like "You could do worse– you always have!" and "There are bigger idiots running for office!".
*In the [[1980 United States presidential election|1980 U.S. presidential election]], guitarist [[Joe Walsh]] ran a mock write-in campaign, promising to make his song "[[Life's Been Good]]" the new national anthem if he won, and running on a platform of "Free Gas for Everyone". Though Walsh (then aged 33) was not old enough to actually assume the office, he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. (In 1992, Walsh purportedly ran for ''vice''-president, in his song "Vote For Me", a track on his album ''[[Songs for a Dying Planet]]'', which was released that year.)
*During the 2000 [[United States Congress#Elections|United States Congress Elections]], film-maker [[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 (TV show)|The Awful Truth]]''.
*In 2012, a campaign was waged to write in [[Charles Darwin]] against Georgia congressman [[Paul Broun]] (who was running unopposed) after Broun "called evolution and other areas of science 'lies straight from the pit of hell.{{'"}} Darwin received approximately 4,000 votes.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://onlineathens.com/election/2012-11-08/charles-darwin-gets-nearly-4000-write-votes-athens-against-rep-broun|title=Charles Darwin gets 4,000 write-in votes in Athens against Paul Broun|date=November 9, 2012|first=Jim|last=Thompson|publisher=[[Athens Banner-Herald]] |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180813112539/http://onlineathens.com/election/2012-11-08/charles-darwin-gets-nearly-4000-write-votes-athens-against-rep-broun |archive-date= Aug 13, 2018 }}</ref> However, because Darwin was not registered as an official candidate (some states require even write-ins to be pre-registered), the [[Georgia Secretary of State]] did not tabulate those votes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/42277/113204/en/summary.html|website=GA – Election Results |title=General Election November 6, 2012 |date=Nov 21, 2012 |access-date=April 15, 2016}}</ref>
*In 2016, several grassroots campaigns to elect [[Bernie Sanders]] President as a write-in candidate were established on social media in the run-up to the United States presidential election. Though Sanders continued to campaign for Democratic nominee [[Hillary Clinton]], supporters pointed to alleged DNC bias in the [[Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016|Democratic Party's presidential primaries]] against Sanders, and Clinton's email scandal, and continued to support him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article112114202.html|title=Latest Hillary Clinton drama gives Bernie Sanders' write-in campaign a boost |website=The News & Observer |date=Nov 2, 2016 |first1=Vera |last1=Bergengruen |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171214183829/http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article112114202.html |archive-date= Dec 14, 2017 }}</ref> Both Clinton and [[Donald Trump]] would have had to win less than the required 270 electoral college votes for Sanders to have denied either candidate the presidency, and for the election to be passed to the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] – thus the initial write-in campaign around Vermont, offering only three college votes, was not successful, but Sanders did receive almost six percent of the vote there.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theindependentthinker2016.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/how-bernie-sanders-could-become-president-with-only-130000-votes/|title=How Bernie Sanders Could Become President With Only 130,000 Votes|date=September 24, 2016 |website=theindependentthinker2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627153742/https://theindependentthinker2016.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/how-bernie-sanders-could-become-president-with-only-130000-votes/ |archive-date= Jun 27, 2023 }}</ref> The campaign expanded to include all 12 eligible states (one of which listed Sanders as an official write-in candidate), and relied on states such as California, with a high electoral college vote count and large support for Sanders, to be successful in denying both Trump and Clinton.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.inquisitr.com/3666716/over-18-million-people-in-california-can-write-in-bernie-sanders-in-california-almost-no-media-reporting-it/|title=Over 18 Million People In California Could Write-In Bernie Sanders In California, Almost No Media Reporting It|date=May 24, 2017 |website=Inquisitr |first1=Dawn |last1=Papple |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002003244/https://www.inquisitr.com/3666716/over-18-million-people-in-california-can-write-in-bernie-sanders-in-california-almost-no-media-reporting-it/ |archive-date= Oct 2, 2022 }}</ref>
* In Sweden, all handwritten votes are [[Optical character recognition|scanned by computer]] and the results published online, although only votes for valid parties count towards determining successful candidates. In the [[2010 Swedish general election|2010 general election]], ineffective votes included 120 for [[Donald Duck]] and 2 for "myself",<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/8021258/Donald-Duck-and-God-mar-Swedish-election.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/8021258/Donald-Duck-and-God-mar-Swedish-election.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Donald Duck and God mar Swedish election|date=September 23, 2010|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=May 5, 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref> as well as several computer code snippets apparently intended as [[code injection]] attacks aimed at either the program which tallied the votes or the browsers of users who accessed the results website.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/sweden-election-hack|title=Hacking Sweden's election with pen and paper|last=Geere|first=Duncan|date=September 24, 2010|magazine=[[Wired UK]]|access-date=May 5, 2018}}</ref>
* In the [[2018 Egyptian presidential election]], owing to a large number of candidates being arrested or barred from running, Egyptian football star [[Mohamed Salah]] received over a million votes, as many Egyptians cancelled out the names of both candidates and wrote his instead. This was higher than the number of votes received by the second place candidate, [[Moussa Mostafa Moussa]]. Write-in votes are not deemed valid in Egypt.