Write It In
Write In NYC
The current Democratic candidate, won her primary with fewer than 10% of registered Democrats in the district.
Didn't vote in the primary?
Prefer a candidate who represents your views?
Write it in!
Learn about the write-in process
Learn about successful write-in campaigns
Learn about the DSA's platform
Play word games to practice your spelling
Listen to our playlist to inspire your write-in voting
Learn more about WINYC
The
The Write-in Process
Step 1: The Circle
Don't draw a smiley face in the write-in bubble. It's not a mood ring; it's a ballot. If you do, you'll be voted out of the race for being too cheerful.
Step 2: The Name
Write the name of the candidate you want to support. No nicknames and check your spelling! If you write 'Bobby', you're not voting for Bobby, you're voting for Bobby's dad.
Step 3: The Vote
Place your mark in the bubble. If you don't, you're not voting. If you do, you're voting. It's that simple. Just don't forget to vote; it's the only way to win the district.
In New York City congressional elections, there are no requirements to be a write-in candidate
Successful Write-in Campaigns
In 2010, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski lost the Republican primary to Tea Party-backed challenger Joe Miller, forcing her to run an unprecedented write-in campaign to keep her seat. Her campaign centered on a simple but critical tactic: an aggressive, months-long voter education effort teaching Alaskans exactly how to spell "Murkowski" and correctly fill in the oval beside her name, since even minor errors risked disqualifying a ballot. This attention to detail proved decisive when Miller's campaign challenged over 8,000 ballots on grounds like misspellings and legibility, turning the ballot-counting process into a battle fought vote by vote. Murkowski's disciplined strategy paid off, and she won with about 40% of the vote, becoming the first candidate to win a U.S. Senate seat by write-in since Strom Thurmond in 1954.
Get to Know The DSA
The DSA's platform promises free housing, healthcare, education, and energy, along with a 32-hour work week and public ownership of major corporations, but offers little beyond vague appeals to "wealth taxes" to explain how any of it would be paid for or sustained. Its foreign policy singles out Israel for uniquely harsh treatment, calling to end all aid and prosecute its leaders for "genocide," while defending regimes like Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran as victims of American interference. The platform reduces complex problems like war, inflation, and policing to the deliberate work of "bosses" and a "billionaire class," and calls for dismantling core institutions like the Senate and Electoral College rather than working within them. Overall, it trades economic and political realism for utopian imagery, offering a striking vision of a post-capitalist future but few credible answers for how to get there.