The results are finally in: Bernie Sanders remained RI's write-in favorite in 2020

Rhode Islanders still "felt the Bern" in 2020, although not as intensely as they did in 2016.

For the second consecutive presidential election, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders received more write-in votes from Rhode Islanders than any other politician, celebrity or cartoon character, according to new 2020 election results released by the state Board of Elections.

Sanders, who came in second in Rhode Island's March 2020 Democratic presidential primary to now-president Joe Biden, received 204 write-in votes in the November general election. While that was the most of any write in, it was far short of the 3,074 write-ins Sanders received in Rhode Island's 2016 general election.

Green Party candidate and "eco-socialist" Howard Hawkins received 174 write-ins, and the rapper known at the time as Kanye West, now named Ye, was third with 131 write-ins.

And in the year he left the New England Patriots for Tampa Bay, quarterback Tom Brady received 14 votes for president in 2020 compared to just six for Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

If it seems unusual that results from an election are being released more than two years after the vote, it is.

The disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic delayed the usual tally of write-in votes in 2020 while the state Board of Elections supported legislation eliminating the requirement that it tabulate all names that had been written in more than five times.

The General Assembly declined to end the counting of write-ins, so after a delay, a tally of write-ins was released this month.

Among the usual votes for Mickey Mouse (35) and perennial candidate Vermin Supreme (12), what the write-in totals show is that the huge number of write-ins in the 2016 presidential election appear to have been an aberration and not the start of a trend of Rhode Islanders trying to vote for people not on the ballot.

There were 9,439 Rhode Island write-in votes for president in 2016, a year when dissatisfaction with both of the major party candidates (Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton) was high.

The 3,074 votes Sanders alone received in 2016 were more than the 2,759 total write-in votes cast in 2020. In the 2012 presidential election there were only 1,381 Rhode Island write-in votes.

Looked at another way, write-ins made up 2% of Rhode Island's 2016 presidential vote and only 0.5% of the 2020 vote.

Presidential candidates defeated in their respective primaries and former presidential candidates dominated the 2020 write-in totals.

Former GOP presidential nominee and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received 109 Rhode Island write-in votes, Tulsi Gabbard got 62 votes, Andrew Yang 48 votes, John Kasich 46 votes, Nikki Haley 37, Pete Buttigieg 28 and Elizabeth Warren 7. Sen. Ted Cruz received 16 votes and Sen. Marco Rubio 12 votes.

Then-Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo received 19 write-in votes, two more than Michael Bloomberg, whom Raimondo supported for president before he dropped out of the primary.

Then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was still riding high in 2020 and received 16 Rhode Island write-ins. He resigned from office in 2021 while facing allegations of sexual misconduct.

Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, got 28 write-in votes, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 18, former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker 14 and national COVID-19 authority Dr. Anthony Fauci 13.

On the celebrity front, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson received 10 write-in votes, Oprah Winfrey 8 and Joe Rogan 7.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: The results are finally in: Bernie Sanders remained the write-in favorite in 2020