Write-in Candidate - As A Protest Vote

As A Protest Vote

• Mad Magazine has satirically called to vote for Alfred E. Neuman as a write-in candidate for every U.S. presidential election from 1960 to 1980 with slogans like "You could do worse-and you already have" and "There are Bigger Idiots running for office!".

• In the 1980 U.S. Presidential election, rock star 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, 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.

• In 2012, a campaign was waged to write in Charles Darwin's name against Paul Broun after Broun "called evolution and other areas of science 'lies straight from the pit of hell.'” Darwin received approximately 4,000 votes.