Votes & ballots · Presidential election results
Write-in votes
Votes for a candidate whose name the voter writes onto the ballot.
Write-in votes are cast by writing (or typing) a candidate's name rather than marking a printed one. States report them very differently — some publish every scattered write-in, some tally only write-ins for registered write-in candidates, and some report a single lump sum. On pumsdata they are folded into the 'other' vote bucket.
Those reporting differences mean state and county files don't always agree on write-ins: a state's summed county 'other' vote can genuinely differ from the state file's 'other' total because the two sources capture write-in and scattering votes differently. Democratic and Republican totals reconcile far more tightly, so margins and major-party shares are unaffected.
Also known as: scattering, scattered votes.
Data: MIT Election Data & Science Lab, Harvard Dataverse.
See write-in votes on the map
Explore presidential election results by state (1976–2024) and county (2000–2024) — margins, swings, and vote shares, election by election. Free while we're in beta.
Write-in votes — FAQ
What is write-in votes in election results data?+
Votes for a candidate whose name the voter writes onto the ballot. Write-in votes are cast by writing (or typing) a candidate's name rather than marking a printed one. States report them very differently — some publish every scattered write-in, some tally only write-ins for registered write-in candidates, and some report a single lump sum. On pumsdata they are folded into the 'other' vote bucket.
Why does write-in votes matter?+
Those reporting differences mean state and county files don't always agree on write-ins: a state's summed county 'other' vote can genuinely differ from the state file's 'other' total because the two sources capture write-in and scattering votes differently. Democratic and Republican totals reconcile far more tightly, so margins and major-party shares are unaffected.
Where does this election data come from?+
All figures come from the MIT Election Data and Science Lab (MEDSL), published on the Harvard Dataverse — state-level presidential returns 1976–2024 and county-level returns 2000–2024. pumsdata is an independent product that makes the data easy to map and compare, and is not affiliated with MEDSL or Harvard.