INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Bernie Was Asked About ‘The Write-In Thing’ And His Response Might Surprise You

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 10:19 PST, Oct 28, 2016

Berniecrats are delighted to hear that Senator Sanders is aware of the write-in strategy. Berners are even more excited that he didn’t even tell them not to vote for him. The closest thing to an objection Sanders could muster, when asked point blank, was to say that in states where the race was tight between Hillary and Trump, he wanted Hillary to win. People planning to write him in strategically are now excited that Bernie didn’t tell anyone not to vote for him.

The Green Party Radio Network‘s Chad Cushman recently asked Bernie about the write-in campaign while in St. Albans, Vermont. Standing in a half-hug with the most popular politician in the United States, Cushman asked Bernie, “How do you feel about the write-in thing?”

Bernie answered with a clearly less-than-prepared statement. The Green Party Radio Network entitled the video in an odd way that made it look as though Bernie is in total opposition of the write-in campaign, except in Vermont. Of course, as expected, given that Bernie doesn’t like to tell people how to vote, Sanders only explained that he is concerned that in states with close races, he wouldn’t want Clinton to lose those electoral votes.

“I think in Vermont I think it’s OK ’cause I think Clinton is gonna win. But in some states where it’s close, I want her to win. So if you want to write me in here, I think it’s fine.”

Cushman admits he is not for the write-in campaign. Many Green Party voters are worried it will take votes away from their own cause. Some have even flat out announced that the write-in campaign is the creation of a super PAC backing Hillary Clinton, according to multiple sources, including Michael Sparks, whose article directly resulted in the creation of multiple write-in campaigns. The Inquisitr has already debunked that theory, but Bernie’s actual concerns are that the campaign could cost Clinton electoral votes in close races and swing states, and hand them to Trump.

For the would-be-write-in voters who share Bernie Sanders’ fears, it should be comforting to know that some of the states targeted by the write-in Bernie campaigns are actually not close races at all. Meanwhile, other write-in-ready targeted states are solid red for Trump.

There are currently 10 confirmed states involved in most of the write-in Bernie campaigns. These are states where Bernie could grab real electoral votes, and it is rumored that one more state (California) will be confirmed soon.

In these 10 states, a candidate doesn’t need to pre-register in order for the write-in vote to count. Write-in votes for Bernie would be counted in Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. Additional states are speculative, but these states all have laws on the book that support the Deny 270 strategy, along with written email confirmations from secretary of state offices, according to Return The Bern members.

Which of these states offer voters the chance to draft the gentleman from Vermont into office using the 12th Amendment, without making Sanders worry too much in the meantime?

Let’s take a look.

Mind you, this is just for the sake of presentation.

In reality, many of Bernie Sanders’ supporters don’t support Hillary Clinton in the slightest.

Bernie Sanders has Libertarian, Green, Democratic, Republican, and independent supporters. Many of Sanders’ supporters aren’t beholden to any party. But for the sake of the argument, let’s just pretend Berniecrats felt they needed Sanders’ approval to write him in.

Vermont was already told, “I think it will be fine,” by Sanders. So, we know how he feels about that state already. Of course, voters had been saying they’d write him in in Vermont immediately after the convention, and they still are. Few Berners in Vermont ever faltered from their devotion to their senator. A phone banking organizer reported on Facebook Thursday that of the 21,649 calls placed to Vermonters so far, 47.8 percent of responders say they will write Bernie in on their ballots. That’s more than twice the pledged votes of any other candidate. Speaking of Vermont, there is a rumor that claims that Vermont doesn’t bind its electors to the popular vote within the state. Elections Administrator JP Isabelle has verified that they actually are bound to the popular vote of the people of Vermont.

Alabama is also a perfectly safe write-in Bernie state. It’s GOP territory. It’s not even a close race, according to pundits. There’s no way Clinton can win Alabama. It’s very Red. Sanders lost the primary, but that doesn’t mean Bernie write-in voters should just disregard Alabama. According to Alabama Votes, there are over 3 million active voters. The primary brought only about one-third of them out, according to the New York Times. Berners who unilaterally fall in line with Sanders’ wishes can feel absolutely safe writing him in in Alabama.

Wyoming was one of the two states mentioned in the September 22 Inquisitr article that California Bernie Sanders elector for the General Election Joel Colombero, who co-founded BernieVote.com and now works with HowToWriteInBernie.com, mentioned in a CTV News Channel interview. Wyoming is never going to give up their electoral votes to Clinton. Liberals in Wyoming overwhelmingly chose Bernie during their caucus. Meanwhile, only 7 percent of the GOP caucus goers picked Trump. Even though Wyoming is a GOP state, voters support equal rights and Bernie’s support of personal privacy appeals to many Wyoming voters. Wyoming is in a significant position of power in this election. Bernie should have no problem with a Wyoming write-in campaign.

There are also states that look really good for the Deny 270 organizers that are not considered “close” races. Perhaps Bernie wouldn’t mind being voted for in Rhode Island, New Jersey, or Washington, given that his concern was over “close” races. Rhode Island is a clear blue state. Google Trends indicated that Rhode Island voters were among the most likely to be googling about writing in Bernie, USA Today reported. New Jersey is not a close race either. Clinton is set to walk away with New Jersey’s electoral votes. Bernie might feel moderately safe about voters writing him in in New Jersey. Only 877,496 voters came out to vote in the New Jersey Democratic primary, and the state has almost exactly three times as many unaffiliated voters, according to NJ.com. While Clinton easily took New Jersey during the primary, if write-in voters wanted to give their state to Bernie, it would only require some of the millions of unaffiliated voters heading out to write him in on their ballot. For what it’s worth, Bernie should plan for a strong write-in showing there, whether he approves or not, because New Jersey was also among the leading Google searches associated with writing in Bernie. Washington is not considered a close race, and also happens to be one of Bernie’s strongest states. Selena Faller from the Washington secretary of state has, according to an email, verified that Washington counts write-in ballots and binds its electors to the vote whether or not they pre-registered.

Of course, there are states on the list that might scare Bernie too, because he doesn’t want people who would have voted for Clinton to vote for him and then for Trump to win. That’s not going to stop the write-in votes in those states though. Iowa‘s certainly on Bernie’s no-no list, but those planning a strategic write-in campaign would say that, since Trump isn’t projected to be very close to 270 and Clinton is leading well above 300 in most projections, it would be beneficial for the end goal to take those six electoral votes from Clinton and either hand them to Sanders or hand them to Trump. Besides, Iowa has more unaffiliated voters than Democratic or Republican voters, according to the Iowa secretary of state. New Hampshire would also be on Bernie’s no-no list. It’s Democratic, but not overwhelmingly so. Again though, people who are trying to write Bernie in strategically don’t want Hillary to take New Hampshire anyway, even if Bernie has resigned himself to a “lesser of two evils” presidency. Trump could take those four votes and still be nowhere near the 270 electoral votes he needs to win. Additionally, Bernie’s fears aside, USA Today reported that Google searches for writing in Bernie in New Hampshire were skyrocketing. During the primary, Bernie clobbered Clinton in New Hampshire, according to the New York Times election results. Bernie might not like it, but write-in voters in New Hampshire will try to give him their electoral votes anyway.

Bernie warned Cushman not to get his hopes up. Bernie doesn’t see that he could win the presidency with this write-in campaign. Berniecrats see a possible path to a President Sanders though, and they want to go for it. They keep Sanders’ words to Bill Maher from an October 14 interview in mind. Sanders told Maher that he wishes he were still campaigning for his candidacy. He even asked his own interview question, then answered it.

“And if your real question is, would I have preferred not to have the time to be with you tonight, to be campaigning all over this country running for President, the answer is yes.”

Write-in voters also saw Jane Sanders single-handedly shoot down rumors that she told a canvasser that she didn’t want people writing in Bernie’s name. The canvasser, according to The Independent Thinker, claimed that Jane said people should vote for someone who was actually on the ballot. Jane shot down the entire story publicly though. Jane tweeted that she would “never say not to support Bernie,” nor tell anyone who to vote for. Dr. Sanders said there was no conversation, that the canvasser’s story is completely untrue, and that the revolution continues on November 9.

Write-in voters remember Bernie’s prophetic statement during the primary season. Heavy even pointed out that his wife retweeted that video in September.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsDSAmXuIvU

Write-in voters see that Evan McMullin is being taken seriously by the media for using the same strategy: Deny 270 electoral votes for all candidates, and send the election to the House of Representatives. It looks as though he might walk away with Utah’s electoral votes. ABC News claims it’s possible for independent McMullin to become president, with just one state’s electoral votes.

“But is President Evan McMullin even possible? The short answer is yes, it’s a long shot, but not completely out of the question.”

McMullin is a no-name compared to Bernie Sanders. McMullin never had mile-long lines of people waiting to hear him speak. He never had tens of thousands of people screaming his name.

If it’s not out of the question for McMullin, it’s nowhere near out of the question for Sanders.

“When we stand together,” Bernie once told his supporters, “We will always win.”

Now’s our chance.

[Featured Image by goldenalcoff/Flickr/Cropped and Resized/CC BY-SA 2.0]

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