ORLANDO, Fla. – The 2024 presidential election in Florida gave voters seven candidates to choose from.
What if you liked none of the above?
Some people just wrote that in. Hundreds did, in fact, with thousands more offering other suggestions.
There’s just one problem — those votes don’t count.
The November General Election ballot had a space to write in a candidate for president. However, in Florida, you have to accurately write down the name of a candidate who has qualified as a write-in candidate.
Mickey Mouse, to our knowledge, has never campaigned for president. However, News 6 obtained the lists of write-in votes in several Central Florida counties, and Disney’s iconic mouse got dozens of votes, along with several of his pals.
Protest votes are not a new concept in U.S. election history. It’s when a voter decides to voice their displeasure with a slate of candidates by writing in another name, or “None of the Above,” “Abstain,” “No Confidence,” etc.
“This tends to be geographic,” News 6 political analyst and UCF professor Dr. Jim Clark said. “For instance, in Texas, Willie Nelson gets votes. So there are a lot of favorite sons all across the country.”
Others just leave the ballot blank. In Florida, unless the candidate qualified as an official write-in with the state, the result is the same.
Florida has not yet released a statewide total of invalid write-in votes for the November 2024 election, or undervotes. The state Division of Elections will likely release a report sometime next year if the past is any indication.
Who got the most write-in votes
If Florida only counted write-in votes for president, former UN ambassador and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley likely would have won at least the Central Florida area.
A News 6 analysis of write-in votes from five counties showed Haley won the vast majority of write-in votes. We counted 708 write-in votes for Haley.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis followed with 403 votes, then Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with 399 votes. Jesus Christ got 309 votes, and “None of the Above” got 288 votes.
Mickey Mouse was the top vote-getter among cartoon characters with 83 votes.
Check out the word cloud below for the top 50 write-in votes.
How we tallied the vote
News 6 put in public records requests with six Central Florida counties and got the write-in vote lists for five of them: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola and Volusia counties.
Going through these spreadsheets was not easy. When a write-in vote is marked on a ballot, the tabulation machines take a picture of the name written on the ballot. The spreadsheets contained endless pictures of votes.
Basically, this is not a scientific process and this list is by no means complete. We had to go over each picture of each name, much like a county canvassing board, decipher handwriting and determine voter intent. Many trees were pulped to paper this operation. A magnifying glass had to be bought to count the votes for Orange County.
Assumptions were made to tally and categorize this list.
For instance, when people voted for Josh Allen, did they mean the Buffalo Bills quarterback?
Were there write-in votes for people this author, a Xennial, didn’t recognize?
Are all versions of Jesus meant to be Jesus Christ? Do you separate Christ, variations on God, and the Holy Spirit, or should they really be one category?
And where the heck do we put Santa Claus?
We’ve broken down the entries by categories, and you can find the charts below.
Politicians, from presidents to sheriffs
Most of the write-in votes that were submitted were for current and former politicians from all levels of government.
Nikki Haley, as mentioned above, was the top vote-getter. Haley won all the counties except one — Jesus Christ won Osceola County.
Haley and the runner-up, DeSantis, faced each other during the Republican presidential primary (along with President-elect Donald Trump).
DeSantis bowed out before the Florida primary happened.
Haley did not endorse Trump for president and despite efforts by Democrats to court the Nikki Haley vote, Clark, News 6 political analyst, sees this as proof of a staunch “Never Trump” contingent, however small it may be (Trump won Florida, after all, including all of the counties we looked at except for Orange County).
Clark also sees this as proof that had DeSantis stayed in the race up to the Florida primary, Haley might well have beaten him in his own state.
“He had already bowed out, and he was making excuses,” Clark said. “‘Oh I was already out of the race.’
“She had 150,000 votes in the primary, so she had supporters out there,” he added.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had also dropped out of the race as an independent candidate by November, but hundreds still wrote his name in for president, along with his father, his uncle John F. Kennedy, and his cousins John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy.
Another independent candidate who got a lot of votes was Dr. Cornel West, the liberal philosopher and political activist. He was not on the ballot in Florida but was in other states.
President Joe Biden also got a handful of votes, as did former President Barack Obama. In every county, however, former First Lady Michelle Obama got more votes.
You’ll note Trump and his opponent Kamala Harris also got write-in votes. We may never know why, or if the voter also cast a regular vote for the candidates. According to Florida law, in a situation like this, it’s up to the county canvassing boards to determine voter intent.
Among the venerable senators, congressman and former cabinet secretaries list is also a notorious perennial candidate Vermin Supreme, who was on the ballot in New Hampshire. Look him up.
Some local candidates also got presidential votes, like State Attorney-elect Monique Worrell, Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood, who also got votes in Lake and Orange counties, as well as Volusia.
Chitwood released this statement to News 6:
“Having recently been notified of receiving votes for president, after I picked myself up off the floor from laughing so hard I have the following to say: if nominated, I will not accept, if elected, I will not serve!”
Historical or religious figures
For this category, we decided that these figures will all have the misfortune of not being alive anymore (hence why musician Jimmy Buffett is here and not under celebrities, sadly).
The aforementioned Christ got the most votes in this category, which included such variations as “Jesus Christ,” “Yeshua,” “Christ our Lord,” and “Jesus of Nazareth.”
Interesting to note that Christ beat God in write-in votes.
Several former presidents made this list, including George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.
Also here: Poncio Pilato (also known as Pontius Pilate), Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Cleopatra, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Scottish hero William Wallace and Santa Claus.
Kanye West beat Taylor Swift for president
Actors, musicians, directors and more were listed under “Celebrities.”
Singer and one-time presidential candidate Kanye West (or Ye West) got the most votes, followed by Taylor Swift. No comment.
They were followed by Dolly Parton, Snoop Dogg and Dwayne Johnson.
Chuck Norris and Bill Nye each got two votes.
A constellation of Hollywood stars make up the also-rans.
Also on this list is Alan Smithee. This prolific director has made over 100 movies and TV show episodes that no other auteur would touch.
Let’s hear it for the ‘toons!
Mickey Mouse leads the pack of cartoon characters written in for president, far and away beating the runner-up, Donald Duck (no comment).
Other cartoon characters on this list included Goku from the Dragonball franchise (regular and his Super Saiyan upgrade), Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Snoopy, who beat human friend Charlie Brown, and Scooby-Doo.
Recent Australian import Bluey also got a vote, along with some more grown-up characters like Hank Hill and Randy Marsh.
Superheroes, starship captains and Kaiju
We’ve separated fictional characters from cartoon characters because the list is eclectic, with no runaway winner.
Five people voted for “Pedro” and we assume they are all for the “Napoleon Dynamite” character, but who can say really?
Same for Josiah Bartlett — the Founding Father or his fictional “West Wing” descendant? We chose the latter.
What’s next?
Kermit The Frog, Jean-Luc Picard and Mad Magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman.
Picard was the only Star Trek character to get votes. No votes for Captain Kirk. No comment.
Other interesting characters included literary hero Atticus Finch, Galactic senator Padme Amidala, slayer Buffy Summers and Godzilla, but not just any Godzilla — the original Gojira from 1954.
From “the king” to “the president?”
NBA star LeBron James tops the list of athletes and sports notables who got votes.
He was followed by former Gator QB Tim Tebow and former Alabama Coach Nick Saban.
The aforementioned Josh Allen got three votes.
Orlando Magic player Paolo Banchero got two votes, and the entire Orlando Magic Team got a vote. Not sure how that would work.
Some local love also with votes for surfer Kelly Slater and former UCF Athletic Director Danny White.
Also — some guy whose name looks like Tony Hawk.
Elon Musk, Xi Jinping and Scott Maxwell
We’re rounding out our categories with notables in the fields of media, business, the military and — foreign leaders?
Several foreign leaders actually got write-in votes, including China’s Xi Jinping, England’s King Charles III, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev, but not Vladimir Putin. No comment.
Elon Musk tops out this overall list. Other business leaders included Bob Iger from Disney, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and Mark Cuban.
Media personalities included Kim Kardashian, Joe Rogan, Candace Owens, Stephen A. Smith and the Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell — two votes, both in Orange County.
It’s not the first time Maxwell has gotten write-in votes for president, though he can’t remember how many he’s gotten before.
“At this growing rate of support, I should have the nomination locked up by 3024,” Maxwell told News 6.
Sweet Meteor of Death, or None of the Above
Finally, the votes that defy category, but probably speak the loudest about how many people felt about this election.
None of the Above got the most votes in this category. Variations on that included, “No Confidence,” “Anybody Else,” “Is this the best we can do” and “Find better leaders.”
“Free Palestine” got the second most votes.
Some of the internet’s favorite memes also find a home here, including gorilla Harambe, “Deez Nuts,” along with “Drain the Swamp” and “For the People.”
Inanimate objects getting votes included a ham and cheese sandwich and a Grimace milkshake.
Finally, “Giant Meteor” and “Sweet Meteor of Death.” If you combine the two categories, the meteor got more votes than Scott Maxwell, but he has a theory as to why.
“I think the special interests might find a giant meteor less painful than a Maxwell presidency,” he said.
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