Washington, D.C.-based attorney and former Chair of the Libertarian National Committee, Joe Bishop-Henchman, has compiled one of the few publicly available tallies of unofficial write-in votes from the 2024 presidential election in the district. Write-in results for Washington, D.C. are not expected to be published by the city government.
“On election day 2024, 2.4% of voters in DC (7,830) cast a write-in ballot rather than vote for the three tickets on the ballot: Harris-Walz (294,185), Trump-Vance (21,076), or Kennedy-Shanahan (2,778),” Bishop-Henchman, a resident of Washington, D.C., posted on X this week. “The DC Board of Elections will not tabulate these write-ins, so I did.”
According to his tally, Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein was the strongest-performing write-in candidate in the city, earning 2,246 votes. She was followed by 2024 Republican primary candidate and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley with 630 votes, and Socialism and Liberation nominee Claudia De la Cruz with 609 votes. A partial list of notable write-in results compiled by Bishop-Henchman includes:
Candidate Name | Nationally Associated Party | Vote Total |
---|---|---|
Jill Stein | Green Party | 2,246 votes |
Nikki Haley | Republican Party | 630 votes |
Claudia De la Cruz | Socialism and Liberation | 609 votes |
Cornel West | Justice For All | 461 votes |
Chase Oliver | Libertarian Party | 202 votes |
Mitt Romney | Republican Party | 174 votes |
Peter Sonski | American Solidarity Party | 128 votes |
Bernie Sanders | Independent | 92 votes |
Rashida Tlaib | Democratic Party | 84 votes |
Randall Terry | Constitution Party | 4 votes |
Vermin Supreme | Pirate Party | 2 votes |
Various Gaza-related names (Ceasefire) | Misc. | 545 votes |
Bishop-Henchman noted that numerous other prominent figures, including Elon Musk, former Congressman Justin Amash, and past presidential candidates from various parties, also received scattered write-in votes. However, specific numbers were not disclosed.
Washington, D.C. does not officially certify or publish write-in votes for presidential candidates unless those candidates have filed specific paperwork with the D.C. Board of Elections in advance, such as a declaration of candidacy. As per D.C. city code, write-in votes for presidential candidates who have not officially registered as write-in candidates are not tabulated or included in official results, leaving Bishop-Henchman’s tally as one of the few publicly available records of these votes.
Thanks, Jordan. I much appreciate it.
I won’t promise to do a proper tally of votes, but I certainly look forward to skimming for interesting and anomalous write-ins.
—
At first impression, it strikes me that
1) DC is very sloppy about scanning write-ins (most are chopped off at least partially); and
2) the majority of DC have deplorable hand-writing (if you can’t manage legible cursive, then at least do proper block letters – another shortcoming of US public schools, no doubt – when I took German courses as a teenager, we were taught to read and, though on an elective basis, to write Frakturschrift, for goodness sake!)
No problem at all. I was sent the following document, which lists each write-in vote as an individual line, with multiple lines per page, meaning readers will need to manually compile the votes for a full picture. Since this came from JBH’s personal Dropbox account, I’ve rehosted it on IPR in case it ever becomes unavailable to the public.
[2024 D.C. write-in results here]
@Jordan
Without meaning to be pushy or to rush you or anything, have there been any developments on this front?
“SIT DOWN !! STAND UP !! SPIN AROUND !!”
You take old left ones out
You put new left ones in
In out, in out
Screw the country ’bout
You do the hokey pokey
Stab the electorate in the back
That’s what it’s all about
…
I WON !! THE ELECTIONS WERE RIGGED !! GREMLINS IN THE VOTING MACHINES !! MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL SPACE ALIENS VOTING !! STOP THE STEAL !! STOP THE COUNT !! SIT DOWN !! STAND UP !! SPIN AROUND !! IT’S A WITCHHUNT !! ZOMBIES FROM WITHIN !! COPE AND SEETH !! THE ENEMIES FROM WITHIN ARE IN MY PANTS !!
Thanks Jordan, that would be nice. Certainly much preferable to independently filing a FOIA request for the same information (which, since that would still only cover DC, would really not be worth the data harvest involved).
Charlie (and everyone),
These numbers are presented solely for their value as a single, compiled—albeit unofficial—source, given the absence of publicly available alternatives. My understanding is that the results were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, based on X remarks made by JBH. I am currently working on obtaining a copy of those results.
“Joe Bishop-Henchman probably filed a freedom of information request to look at all the ballots that the computer had identified as having a write-in for president.”
If that’s the case, I wish he’d have tabulated and published ALL the different write-ins somewhere (preferably verbatim, i.e. without grouping together of variations), even if that would have been too long for a single tweet.
“a bill saying that write-in votes for declared presidential write-in candidates should be counted”
Better yet, report ALL write-ins (declared candidate or not), if only for statistical purposes.
You don’t have to count votes (in the narrow, technical sense) in order to tally them and publish the results informally. Protest votes are a legitimate use of ones vote, even if they can’t be officially counted; and so the electorate should be able to see, for example, how Mickey Mouse fared against Donald Duck.
But alas, DC’s whole deal has become to oppose all forms of transparency, so I doubt they would ever pass any bill requiring them to disclose write-in totals (even of only declared candidates) at this point.
You can’t compare write in totals from 2008 accurately. Clearly, the culture has changed in that regard, I suspect due to the near ubiquity of smart phones and social media. That’s why comparisons with other write in candidates and various states in the presidential election this year are more indicative of relative performance than anything from 2008.
Has this been verified? Given the fact the source was caught destroying emails and resigned due to massive corruption, this can’t be believed at face value?
Chase Oliver’s 202 write-ins isn’t bad. In 2008, the only state that tallied write-in votes for Bob Barr was Maine, where he got 251 write-ins. Maine had twice the population of D.C.
Joe Bishop-Henchman probably filed a freedom of information request to look at all the ballots that the computer had identified as having a write-in for president. He is a hero for having done this. Now I hope he will go to his CityCouncilmenber a and explain wat he has done, and urge the Councilmember to introduce a bill saying that write-in votes for declared presidential write-in candidates should be counted, just as they are counted in a large majority of states.
“Washington, D.C. does not officially certify or publish write-in votes for presidential candidates unless those candidates have filed specific paperwork with the D.C. Board of Elections in advance, such as a declaration of candidacy.”
So where do these figures come from and to what extent can we rely on their accuracy? Because I doubt that Romney, Sanders, Tlaib and especially “Various Gaza-related names” filed such paperwork. Yet somehow their supposed tallies get published, while those of Musk, Amash, etc. don’t.
If Joe details any of his methodology or sources, it isn’t in the tweet linked above (labeled “1/”), and any later tweets in this implied series are not showing up on his timeline.
Joe certainly isn’t above pulling figures out of his *** when it suits his agenda, as illustrated nicely by what tweets of his can be seen, let alone cherry picking and suppressing data. However, the same could be said of any DC BoE bureaucrat who is willing to publish leftists’ tallies despite presumably lacking the prerequisite paperwork, but not others’.
Wow. How embarrassing for Chase Oliver. Not even 10% of the writein votes of Jill Stein, far fewer writein votes than non candidate Nikki Haley, and barely more than Mitt Romney, who has not been on any DC ballot since…2008? Also less than a third of De La Cruz and less than half of West … And a very very embarrassing 8th place. Possibly lower, depending on the “ceasefire” distribution.