Student Resources
The following provides an overview of Dr. Hartnell's quest for the White House and can be used in conjunction with THIS activity!
1. Why did you run for U.S. President?
At the opening of the movie Jerry Maguire, sports agent Jerry has an "epiphany" about his job that results in him writing a Mission Statement... which ultimately gets him fired. Of course, in true Hollywood fashion, we get a feel-good ending and some classic quotes that easily elicit reactions from eavesdropping Jerry Maguire connoisseurs.
For me, it wasn't a Mission Statement.
It was t-shirts.
It all started over some t-shirts.
T-shirts that would be sold to raise money for a charity. One of those, "Hey, I know how we can make some money!" brainstorming sessions you have with yourself while eating a cup of yogurt between the midnight and 1am SportCenters... all the while wondering when it expired because the expiration date was printed on the label in such a fashion that you can't tell if it's a "6" or an "8"... and you're really starting to hope it's an "8"...
A week later, the idea snowballed into a unique activity to make the rather "ho-hum" Presidential Election of 2012 interesting to 14 and 15-year-old students.
A month later, that yogurt-induced stratagem landed me 34 (unofficial) Popular Votes in the Election of 2012. The votes were nothing more than 34 people telling me that they voted for my "campaign". I hadn't filled out any paperwork. I had missed every major deadline to actually be a write-in. The only criteria I met was that I had been born in the country, and I was 35. Of course, I didn't even turn that until a month before the election. As such, none of these votes actually counted.
Still, it was fascinating to think that people honestly thought, "Yea, how about this guy?" and promptly typed "Ben Hartnell" into the write-in space on the electronic ballot.
I used the activity to teach my students about the Election of 2012 and to raise close to $5,000 for Westerville's Caring & Sharing charity by selling "I Want A Tattooed President" t-shirts and yard signs.
Fast forward four years, and the freshmen that were now seniors asked if I would run again... but this time "for real". After expressing how much they learned and how my 2012 gimmick campaign might actually gain some traction in 2016 - and that my current students would benefit from it - I decided to give it a shot.
Why not?
Why couldn't an Average Joe... just a regular high school history teacher... be elected to the most powerful job in the world?
Unlike in 2012, I wanted to make sure all votes for me actually counted. I decided to document my entire journey and use it as the ULTIMATE teachable moment.
Little did I know what was in store for me during the process.
And so it began...
For me, it wasn't a Mission Statement.
It was t-shirts.
It all started over some t-shirts.
T-shirts that would be sold to raise money for a charity. One of those, "Hey, I know how we can make some money!" brainstorming sessions you have with yourself while eating a cup of yogurt between the midnight and 1am SportCenters... all the while wondering when it expired because the expiration date was printed on the label in such a fashion that you can't tell if it's a "6" or an "8"... and you're really starting to hope it's an "8"...
A week later, the idea snowballed into a unique activity to make the rather "ho-hum" Presidential Election of 2012 interesting to 14 and 15-year-old students.
A month later, that yogurt-induced stratagem landed me 34 (unofficial) Popular Votes in the Election of 2012. The votes were nothing more than 34 people telling me that they voted for my "campaign". I hadn't filled out any paperwork. I had missed every major deadline to actually be a write-in. The only criteria I met was that I had been born in the country, and I was 35. Of course, I didn't even turn that until a month before the election. As such, none of these votes actually counted.
Still, it was fascinating to think that people honestly thought, "Yea, how about this guy?" and promptly typed "Ben Hartnell" into the write-in space on the electronic ballot.
I used the activity to teach my students about the Election of 2012 and to raise close to $5,000 for Westerville's Caring & Sharing charity by selling "I Want A Tattooed President" t-shirts and yard signs.
Fast forward four years, and the freshmen that were now seniors asked if I would run again... but this time "for real". After expressing how much they learned and how my 2012 gimmick campaign might actually gain some traction in 2016 - and that my current students would benefit from it - I decided to give it a shot.
Why not?
Why couldn't an Average Joe... just a regular high school history teacher... be elected to the most powerful job in the world?
Unlike in 2012, I wanted to make sure all votes for me actually counted. I decided to document my entire journey and use it as the ULTIMATE teachable moment.
Little did I know what was in store for me during the process.
And so it began...
2. How did you run for U.S. President?
Remember, you have to be at least 35 years old and have been born in the United States in order to be eligible to run for President. I was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1977 and was 39 when I entered the 2016 Presidential race.
It's incredibly expensive to run for President, as one can most certainly imagine. In the Election of 2016, Hillary Clinton spent $565 million while Donald Trump spent "just" $322 million. Specifically, Trump paid his companies $12 million for their help during the campaign (including reimbursement for flights, hotels, meals, etc.), dropped $8.7 million using a private aircraft, and threw in $66 million of his OWN money. In total, Clinton and her allies took in $1.2 billion in campaign contributions while Trump raised $646 million.
I spent $312.
Not million.
Three hundred and twelve dollars.
If you break down the amount the two major candidates spent PER Popular Vote they received, it becomes very apparent that my campaign got more bang for its buck!
Clinton spent $565,000,000 and received 65,844,610 Popular Votes. That works out to her camp spending $8.58 per vote.
Trump spent $322,000,000 and received 62,979,636 Popular Votes. That works out to his camp spending $5.11 per vote.
I spent $312 and received 721 Popular Votes. That works out to my camp spending only $0.43 per vote! Talk about a campaign that had fiscal responsibility written all over it!
Clearly our country watched an insane amount of money being spent. And while I have been elected President as many times as Hillary Clinton, the process of running was ever crazier.
To get your name to appear on a Presidential ballot requires some significant money and thousands of signatures of registered voters... in each state. Oh, and the rules are different in every... single... state. Unless you have a political machine working for you like Trump's Republican Party and Clinton's Democratic Party, it's wildly difficult to find the money and/or the time to devote to collecting signatures on your own. My campaign tried to collect the 5,000 signatures needed to appear on the Ohio ballot... and wound up with a shade over 300 after two weeks of shaking people down at the Fourth Friday Celebrations in Uptown Westerville [pictured below].
It's incredibly expensive to run for President, as one can most certainly imagine. In the Election of 2016, Hillary Clinton spent $565 million while Donald Trump spent "just" $322 million. Specifically, Trump paid his companies $12 million for their help during the campaign (including reimbursement for flights, hotels, meals, etc.), dropped $8.7 million using a private aircraft, and threw in $66 million of his OWN money. In total, Clinton and her allies took in $1.2 billion in campaign contributions while Trump raised $646 million.
I spent $312.
Not million.
Three hundred and twelve dollars.
If you break down the amount the two major candidates spent PER Popular Vote they received, it becomes very apparent that my campaign got more bang for its buck!
Clinton spent $565,000,000 and received 65,844,610 Popular Votes. That works out to her camp spending $8.58 per vote.
Trump spent $322,000,000 and received 62,979,636 Popular Votes. That works out to his camp spending $5.11 per vote.
I spent $312 and received 721 Popular Votes. That works out to my camp spending only $0.43 per vote! Talk about a campaign that had fiscal responsibility written all over it!
Clearly our country watched an insane amount of money being spent. And while I have been elected President as many times as Hillary Clinton, the process of running was ever crazier.
To get your name to appear on a Presidential ballot requires some significant money and thousands of signatures of registered voters... in each state. Oh, and the rules are different in every... single... state. Unless you have a political machine working for you like Trump's Republican Party and Clinton's Democratic Party, it's wildly difficult to find the money and/or the time to devote to collecting signatures on your own. My campaign tried to collect the 5,000 signatures needed to appear on the Ohio ballot... and wound up with a shade over 300 after two weeks of shaking people down at the Fourth Friday Celebrations in Uptown Westerville [pictured below].
Because deadlines sneak up on you quickly (and we didn't "start" hitting the campaign trail until late April 2016), we decided to look into other options for running for President.
Ah-hah! I could run as a write-in candidate like I pretended to do in 2012... except, you know, "for real" this time! I mean, this shouldn't be too hard to do, right? After all, you always hear about those people that voted for "Mickey Mouse"... and, if a fictitious cartoon rat can poll so well, why not a real-life high school history teacher?
That was our first lesson.
Turns out, the process of becoming an actual write-in candidate is far more complex and time consuming than originally imagined. It's one thing to have people write in anyone (or anyTHING) on their ballot (M-I-C-K-E-Y...), but if you want that vote to actually COUNT, there are bundles of paperwork, signatures, names, money, and good old fashioned elbow grease involved.
In early June 2016, I filled out the necessary paperwork to become an official write-in candidate in Ohio and dropped it off, in person, to the Secretary of State's office in Downtown Columbus [pictured below].
Ah-hah! I could run as a write-in candidate like I pretended to do in 2012... except, you know, "for real" this time! I mean, this shouldn't be too hard to do, right? After all, you always hear about those people that voted for "Mickey Mouse"... and, if a fictitious cartoon rat can poll so well, why not a real-life high school history teacher?
That was our first lesson.
Turns out, the process of becoming an actual write-in candidate is far more complex and time consuming than originally imagined. It's one thing to have people write in anyone (or anyTHING) on their ballot (M-I-C-K-E-Y...), but if you want that vote to actually COUNT, there are bundles of paperwork, signatures, names, money, and good old fashioned elbow grease involved.
In early June 2016, I filled out the necessary paperwork to become an official write-in candidate in Ohio and dropped it off, in person, to the Secretary of State's office in Downtown Columbus [pictured below].
The paperwork, which my students and I tracked down on the Ohio S-o-S's website, required the typical application-styled information (name, date of birth, address, etc.). I also had to provide the name of my Vice Presidential running mate, although this wasn't a requirement since you don't need to run with someone as a write-in. Still, I selected my Cousin Dave Marshall of Michigan. He had "run" with me before in 2012.
Lastly, I needed the names and addresses of 18 registered voters (and residents of Ohio) that would be willing to serve as my Electoral College representatives (something I hadn't done in 2012). This meant that if I were to win the state of Ohio during the election, these 18 would cast their Electoral Vote for me when the Electoral College "convened" in Columbus one month after the election. After securing their permission, I selected my brother, some lifelong friends that I've known since elementary school, one former student from my first history class in 2001, and a handful of administrators and teachers from Westerville North! (You'll see their names later on in the Certificate of Ascertainment for the State of Ohio.)
Just two days after I dropped off the paperwork, I received a letter from Jack L. Christopher, the General Counsel for Ohio's Secretary of State [pictured below].
It was ON!
Lastly, I needed the names and addresses of 18 registered voters (and residents of Ohio) that would be willing to serve as my Electoral College representatives (something I hadn't done in 2012). This meant that if I were to win the state of Ohio during the election, these 18 would cast their Electoral Vote for me when the Electoral College "convened" in Columbus one month after the election. After securing their permission, I selected my brother, some lifelong friends that I've known since elementary school, one former student from my first history class in 2001, and a handful of administrators and teachers from Westerville North! (You'll see their names later on in the Certificate of Ascertainment for the State of Ohio.)
Just two days after I dropped off the paperwork, I received a letter from Jack L. Christopher, the General Counsel for Ohio's Secretary of State [pictured below].
It was ON!
After becoming the FIRST official write-in candidate in Ohio for the Election of 2016, my students and I set our sights on other states. This resulted in one crazy summer of tracking down paperwork for the states that permitted write-in candidates (nine states do NOT permit write-ins). Hours were spent e-mailing and calling the various Secretary of State offices around the country when we stumbled upon conflicting information on their websites concerning write-ins or couldn't find the needed applications. We were dismayed that so many Board of Elections and Secretary of State websites had broken links or no information available for write-ins. One of the biggest things I think our campaign contributed to the election was the fact that so many states had to go back into their websites and correct the mistakes we found. (And there were a LOT!)
Many states required that our paperwork be notarized, which means you have to sign the application in front of an official Notary after taking an oath that you are the actual person signing the paperwork. This usually cost around $20 per "notary" stamp that would be affixed to the document. My go-to location for this process was the local UPS Store in Westerville [pictured below]. On occasion, the application required BOTH my signature and my Cousin Dave's signature to be notarized. That would haven been easy if we both lived in the same state... but we don't... and 8-hour round trips every time we needed signatures wasn't feasible (sorry, I don't have a private jet). This resulted in me sending the paperwork to my cousin to get notarized. He would go sign his papers in front of a Notary (keep in mind he travels a lot for a living, so we had to coordinate schedules) and then mailed it back to me. Once I had his paperwork, I could go get mine notarized before mailing the entire application in to wherever it needed to go. As you can imagine, this took a lot of time and became quite tedious considering we were doing all of this just be write-in candidates. (The notarizations and subsequent postage accounted for the bulk of our campaign's expenses.)
Many states required that our paperwork be notarized, which means you have to sign the application in front of an official Notary after taking an oath that you are the actual person signing the paperwork. This usually cost around $20 per "notary" stamp that would be affixed to the document. My go-to location for this process was the local UPS Store in Westerville [pictured below]. On occasion, the application required BOTH my signature and my Cousin Dave's signature to be notarized. That would haven been easy if we both lived in the same state... but we don't... and 8-hour round trips every time we needed signatures wasn't feasible (sorry, I don't have a private jet). This resulted in me sending the paperwork to my cousin to get notarized. He would go sign his papers in front of a Notary (keep in mind he travels a lot for a living, so we had to coordinate schedules) and then mailed it back to me. Once I had his paperwork, I could go get mine notarized before mailing the entire application in to wherever it needed to go. As you can imagine, this took a lot of time and became quite tedious considering we were doing all of this just be write-in candidates. (The notarizations and subsequent postage accounted for the bulk of our campaign's expenses.)
Some states proved tricky because they required one Electoral College representative from each Congressional District. For instance, to become official in Michigan, we had to track down a map to find supporters that lived in each of their 14 districts [pictured below]. We only learned about this requirement after our initial application was rejected by Michigan's Secretary of State. When I contacted the office, I was told of this requirement (which had not appeared anywhere on their website nor had been mentioned in previous communications). The map they e-mailed me was also incorrect since their districts had been redrawn in January 2013... and the map they gave us was prior to the redistricting. (Yea, because that's what you want to get from a Secretary of State's office.) This is where the power of social media came into play, and we used our campaign's Facebook page to send out a request for help. In a matter of days, we had the necessary people in the proper districts and could proceed with our paperwork!
We were unable to replicate this success in Wisconsin and California. Wisconsin has eight Congressional Districts, and while we had close to 30 people offer to help, of those 30, only five fell in different districts. In California, you needed a notarized form for each of its 53 Congressional Districts. As I didn't have the financial means (or time) to fly to California and traverse the state looking for supporters, I had to abandon our efforts there.
Because we did not look into other states until we had secured official write-in status in Ohio, this cost us Florida and Indiana, which had deadlines that expired before our campaign was approved in Ohio on June 30, 2016.
In other states, the process was simply unrealistic for a write-in candidate. For instance, in order to be a write-in candidate in the state of Utah, I had to hand-deliver my paperwork to the Secretary of State's office. Needless to say, that was a hard sell to my wife - and, as such, did not happen. In Illinois, we needed to submit notarized paperwork to all 102 jurisdictions (counties) and eight Board of Elections. At $20 for each notary (not counting postage), it was financially impossible for me to pull off this feat. As such, we picked two counties (Cook County and Sangamon County) because they're home to the cities of Chicago and Springfield (state capital) and became official write-in candidates there.
Some states needed the actual signatures of people pledging to be Electoral College representatives. In Arizona, I sent an old middle school friend the paperwork to get signed by people she knew that were willing to support the campaign. Once she had the signatures, she sent the paperwork back to me, I got it notarized (because I couldn't have it notarized until I had the signatures)... and then mailed everything back to the Secretary of State's office in Arizona.
I asked my doctoral chair living in Minnesota, a former student living in New York, a former student teacher living in Virginia, an elementary school friend living in Kentucky, and relatives living in Pennsylvania to help me become official in those states... and they did!
As the summer unfolded, more and more letters and e-mails rolled in from the country's different S-o-S offices informing us that we were "official" as write-in candidates [shown below]! Of course, not every state sent a letter confirming our candidacy, which meant we had to track down on-line records to make sure our paperwork had been received and properly filed. This became an issue in Kansas because we never gained official status (no letter/e-mail and no appearance in their on-line voter's guide) even though we had a UPS confirmation that our application with fee payment (they cashed my check!) and notarization had been delivered (I always paid extra for that service when I sent these applications out). Repeated e-mails to their S-o-S office went unanswered. Still, we chose to count Kansas as one of our official states.
In Colorado, we missed the deadline but were still sent a letter... that, as you'll see if you read it, proves that money "talks"! (Go ahead and see how we could still gain access to their ballot despite missing the deadline!)
Because we did not look into other states until we had secured official write-in status in Ohio, this cost us Florida and Indiana, which had deadlines that expired before our campaign was approved in Ohio on June 30, 2016.
In other states, the process was simply unrealistic for a write-in candidate. For instance, in order to be a write-in candidate in the state of Utah, I had to hand-deliver my paperwork to the Secretary of State's office. Needless to say, that was a hard sell to my wife - and, as such, did not happen. In Illinois, we needed to submit notarized paperwork to all 102 jurisdictions (counties) and eight Board of Elections. At $20 for each notary (not counting postage), it was financially impossible for me to pull off this feat. As such, we picked two counties (Cook County and Sangamon County) because they're home to the cities of Chicago and Springfield (state capital) and became official write-in candidates there.
Some states needed the actual signatures of people pledging to be Electoral College representatives. In Arizona, I sent an old middle school friend the paperwork to get signed by people she knew that were willing to support the campaign. Once she had the signatures, she sent the paperwork back to me, I got it notarized (because I couldn't have it notarized until I had the signatures)... and then mailed everything back to the Secretary of State's office in Arizona.
I asked my doctoral chair living in Minnesota, a former student living in New York, a former student teacher living in Virginia, an elementary school friend living in Kentucky, and relatives living in Pennsylvania to help me become official in those states... and they did!
As the summer unfolded, more and more letters and e-mails rolled in from the country's different S-o-S offices informing us that we were "official" as write-in candidates [shown below]! Of course, not every state sent a letter confirming our candidacy, which meant we had to track down on-line records to make sure our paperwork had been received and properly filed. This became an issue in Kansas because we never gained official status (no letter/e-mail and no appearance in their on-line voter's guide) even though we had a UPS confirmation that our application with fee payment (they cashed my check!) and notarization had been delivered (I always paid extra for that service when I sent these applications out). Repeated e-mails to their S-o-S office went unanswered. Still, we chose to count Kansas as one of our official states.
In Colorado, we missed the deadline but were still sent a letter... that, as you'll see if you read it, proves that money "talks"! (Go ahead and see how we could still gain access to their ballot despite missing the deadline!)
It was an insanely busy summer, but, in the end, our campaign found itself "official" in 26 states [shown in blue below].
A few months into our campaign, and as this thing grew from a classroom experiment into an actual grassroots movement, we changed the look and feel of our websites... and my attire. We started to shy away from the "Macho Man Uncle Sam" look and downplay the cheesiness that we initially used to gain attention. We came to favor a sport coat and "business-casual" attire, which gave our campaign some much-needed public legitimacy.
We also created the HARTY PARTY as our political party [CLICK HERE to learn more]. We couldn't afford the necessary fees nor wanted to run the risk of getting embroiled in campaign finances by actually creating our own political party, so we ran as "undeclared" or "independent". In fact, we had to submit separate paperwork to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) declaring that we were not profiting from our campaign, were receiving $0 from outside donors, and estimated that our budget would be between $300 and $350. I exchanged e-mails back-and-forth with the FEC to make sure we were all clear and not in violation of campaign financing. Unless our campaign was expecting to have expenditures exceeding $5,000, we were told we did not need to file any additional paperwork with the FEC. Needless to say, the learning process continued for my students, supporters, observers... and MYSELF! (I can't say I ever imagined that at any point in my life I'd be playing e-mail tag with the FEC!)
3. How does a write-in ballot work?
It became important for our campaign to make sure that voters understood how they could vote for us since our names would NOT appear on the ballot. I created an info-ad [pictured below] that we put out across all of our social media platforms. Since some states were slated to use electronic voting machines while others were sticking with paper ballots, we had to make sure we informed the voting public on how to vote for a write-in candidate using either platform.
It was interesting to note that on a few of the applications, we were asked for alternative spellings of our first and last names. In other states, we were warned that if a voter misspelled any portion of our first or last names, it would result in that vote being nullified. This became yet another obstacle that we discovered only a write-in candidate faces. If a voter wrote down just "Hartnell" instead of "Ben Hartnell", if they switched up first names and wrote down "Dave Hartnell and Ben Marshall", if they spelled my last name or my VP's last name incorrectly ("Heartnell"), or if they left off my VP's name when typing or writing in my name (applicable only in some states), then we lost that vote. Without a doubt, having your name actually appear ON the ballot guarantees you greater success because the voter just has to locate your name rather than remember it AND then spell it correctly. While both of our names were listed on a "Candidates List" posted inside the polling place, how many people ever walk up and look at that? Easily, we were fighting uphill on Election Day.
In the end, how many of our votes were nullified? How many might we have received if we were actually ON the ballot?
It was interesting to note that on a few of the applications, we were asked for alternative spellings of our first and last names. In other states, we were warned that if a voter misspelled any portion of our first or last names, it would result in that vote being nullified. This became yet another obstacle that we discovered only a write-in candidate faces. If a voter wrote down just "Hartnell" instead of "Ben Hartnell", if they switched up first names and wrote down "Dave Hartnell and Ben Marshall", if they spelled my last name or my VP's last name incorrectly ("Heartnell"), or if they left off my VP's name when typing or writing in my name (applicable only in some states), then we lost that vote. Without a doubt, having your name actually appear ON the ballot guarantees you greater success because the voter just has to locate your name rather than remember it AND then spell it correctly. While both of our names were listed on a "Candidates List" posted inside the polling place, how many people ever walk up and look at that? Easily, we were fighting uphill on Election Day.
In the end, how many of our votes were nullified? How many might we have received if we were actually ON the ballot?
4. Can a write-in candidate actually win?
Never say never, right?
We made sure to keep a positive vibe about our campaign despite the almost insurmountable odds. However, this became one of the biggest teachable moments - what happens if no candidate receives the magic number of 270 Electoral Votes? Our campaign made sure to really drive home this message as it, essentially, became our only shot at winning. The info-ad shown below was also circulated across our social media platforms.
To see the specifics of our "battle plan" and why we still stood a chance to win this election, CLICK HERE.
We made sure to keep a positive vibe about our campaign despite the almost insurmountable odds. However, this became one of the biggest teachable moments - what happens if no candidate receives the magic number of 270 Electoral Votes? Our campaign made sure to really drive home this message as it, essentially, became our only shot at winning. The info-ad shown below was also circulated across our social media platforms.
To see the specifics of our "battle plan" and why we still stood a chance to win this election, CLICK HERE.
5. How did you decide on the issues?
Since my daily clientele are impressionable 14 and 15-year-olds, I knew I couldn't come right out and announce my personal beliefs on issues X, Y, and Z. If this was to be an authentic teachable moment, I needed to create an environment that could foster class dialogue about the major issues. To do so, our campaign concluded that we would let the American people tell us what mattered to them. We did this by setting up a series of on-line polls. In short, the platform stances of the Harty Party were 100% determined by the voters. Whatever "stance" was ahead in the polls at any given time would be the official "stance" of our campaign!
CLICK HERE (or click the picture below) to see our campaign "platform"!
CLICK HERE (or click the picture below) to see our campaign "platform"!
6. How did you get support for your campaign?
This is where I relied heavily on my students, especially since I started the campaign with a flip phone and zero social media accounts. Before we started submitting paperwork, we brainstormed ideas for campaign slogans to be used on yard signs, t-shirts, and bumper stickers. The students liked my "Lower Taxes. More Beard" slogan from 2012 and added "Make America Bearded Again" as a way to spoof Trump's motto. We used a local sign company (Brilliant Colorworks) and a local t-shirt company (J.C. Manny), both of whom donated all funds raised through these sales to the local charity "Caring & Sharing" (which, if you know me, know I'm rather passionate about). We created on-line shops for these items before finally getting me set up with a new phone... and Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts. Soon we had our interactive campaign site up and running. We were in business! (CLICK HERE to see more of our yard signs and t-shirts on display across the country... including one that made it all the way to Hong Kong!)
We had been campaigning at the Fourth Fridays in Westerville but needed bigger exposure. Just days after being approved as an official write-in candidate in Ohio, we bought space in the Westerville Fourth of July Parade (which was a third of our $300 budget). J.C. Manny graciously donated 300 free t-shirts for us to throw from our "float" (which was my truck). My parade volunteers consisted of family members who happily handed out the freebies (and a thousand campaign flyers) to the crowd along the parade route [pictured below]. Little did we know this is when it would all get quite "real".
The day after the parade, I received a phone call from Reneé LaSalle, a reporter for NBC. She had seen people posting pictures of our "float" and stories about our "campaign" on Facebook and wanted to do a news segment about it. Ummmm... YES PLEASE! The next day she rolled in with a camera crew and conducted an interview in my backyard with me and my son and contacted my Vice President via FaceTime. The night that the segment aired, she was LIVE outside our de facto campaign headquarters (my house) broadcasting the segment! (Funny story - before she left after the initial interview, she asked that I mow my front yard since she would be returning for a live news feed! Alrighty then!)
Click the video below to watch our NBC campaign coverage! (Be sure to listen to how the two head news anchors introduce the story!)
Click the video below to watch our NBC campaign coverage! (Be sure to listen to how the two head news anchors introduce the story!)
The second this segment aired, our campaign BLEW UP. The traffic on our website and social media accounts exploded. Suddenly, we were inundated with requests for t-shirts and yard signs. That's when we elected to move away from the Macho Man Uncle Sam outfit (but kept it for the Fourth Fridays since it visually drew people to our campaign table). We stepped up our "advertising" on social media, which consisted of nothing more than pictures my wife took on her phone of me and Fraser in our backyard that I then turned into ads by using my very limited Microsoft Publisher skills! We were fielding questions from people across this country as the e-mails poured in. People asked about our legitimacy, our stances on certain issues, if we were "official" in their state, how they could help us, and everything in between! Newspapers (in Columbus, Detroit, and Buffalo), TV stations, magazines, colleges (such as Kent State and William & Mary), and radio programs (like NPR in Michigan, one in Florida, and 92.3 WCOL in Columbus) reached out to us for on-air interviews. I was invited to the Ohio Statehouse and asked a gauntlet of questions on the program "The State of Ohio". I was welcomed at a Candidate's Breakfast in Sunbury, Ohio with other state officials also running for various offices and spoke to a ballroom of potential voters. On Atlanta's WSB Talk Radio 750 AM and FM 95.5 stations, our campaign was mentioned when discussing the Presidential Debates and third party options. Herman Cain said, "That school teacher, Ben Hartnell, has a pretty good foothold in Ohio for a third party candidate." With all of this coverage and momentum, could "The Beard" win this thing?
The video above contains the last minute of my speech at the Candidate's Breakfast.
To see the additional articles and interviews, CLICK HERE!
7. How many votes did your campaign get?
Election Day was an exciting one. Liberty Union Middle School in Baltimore, Ohio invited my son and I to come out and address their students. We made that our final stop. It seemed only appropriate that our campaign, which started in a classroom, should end in one.
My Cousin Dave drove down from Michigan to spend the evening from our "headquarters" and watching the election results. Fraser watched with us until it was his bedtime. Our greatest campaign supporter headed off still believing we were going to win.
Sadly, we didn't.
While we were able to follow how we were doing in "real time" in some states (most notably Ohio [pictured below]), we had to wait until after December 19th before we knew the exact number of votes that we received.
Sadly, we didn't.
While we were able to follow how we were doing in "real time" in some states (most notably Ohio [pictured below]), we had to wait until after December 19th before we knew the exact number of votes that we received.
We got our final tally by accessing the Certificate of Ascertainment from each state in which we were official write-in candidates. (What's a Certificate of Ascertainment you ask? Truth be told, I had never heard of them until this election!) Certificates of Ascertainment are used to officially identify the winning candidates and list the names of their Presidential Electors in each state. The Certificate, which details the number of votes all Electors received, represents a crucial link between the Popular Vote and Electoral Vote. If you recall, on Election Day, U.S. citizens cast votes for the candidates' Electors and NOT the candidates themselves.
On December 19, 2016, the winning Electors for each state met in their respective capitals (the fabled "Electoral College") and voted for the President and Vice President on separate ballots. The Electors recorded their votes on Certificates of Vote before pairing them with the Certificates of Ascertainment.
With all Certificates of Ascertainment collected and posted a few days later, we found that our campaign received 721 Popular Votes in the 2016 Presidential Election! Seeing as how we spent $312 and received 721 Popular Votes, that works out to my camp spending only $0.43 per vote compared to Trump's $5.11/vote and Clinton's $8.58/vote!
On December 19, 2016, the winning Electors for each state met in their respective capitals (the fabled "Electoral College") and voted for the President and Vice President on separate ballots. The Electors recorded their votes on Certificates of Vote before pairing them with the Certificates of Ascertainment.
With all Certificates of Ascertainment collected and posted a few days later, we found that our campaign received 721 Popular Votes in the 2016 Presidential Election! Seeing as how we spent $312 and received 721 Popular Votes, that works out to my camp spending only $0.43 per vote compared to Trump's $5.11/vote and Clinton's $8.58/vote!
As you can see in the Certificate of Ascertainment for the State of Ohio [pictured above], the Hartnell-Marshall campaign received 589 Popular Votes! HOWEVER, my Cousin Dave and I actually received 0 Popular Votes. Clinton and Trump also received 0 Popular Votes. The names of my 18 Electoral College representatives are shown on this certificate and are technically the ones that received the 589 Popular Votes from the people of Ohio (do you recognize any names?). The same thing happened to Clinton and Trump's slate of Ohio Electors - their Electors got the Popular Votes instead of Hillary and Donald. Had the Hartnell-Marshall campaign won the state, then these 18 Electors would have cast their 18 total Electoral Votes for us (hopefully, unless they were "Faithless Electors"). That would have given us 18 Electoral Votes... but still 0 Popular Votes. In the end, Trump won Ohio, so his Electors awarded him Ohio's 18 Electoral Votes (even though he, like us, technically received 0 Popular Votes). Got all that?! (Thanks, Founding Fathers!)
Three of the other Certificates of Ascertainment are shown below. To see the rest of the Certificates of Ascertainment and a full state-by-state breakdown of where our 721 votes came from, CLICK HERE!
Three of the other Certificates of Ascertainment are shown below. To see the rest of the Certificates of Ascertainment and a full state-by-state breakdown of where our 721 votes came from, CLICK HERE!
8. What impact did your run have?
Obviously we fell short of our ultimate goal, the White House, by just a few million votes. That being said, this "teachable moment turned grassroots movement" was hugely successful for many reasons, including:
A. Hands down, my students - my campaign helpers - received the most authentic educational experience about running for President because they ACTUALLY helped someone run for President! Mickey Mouse and dead gorillas aside, we provided legitimacy and a new understanding of what it means to write in a SERIOUS candidate for office.
B. We educated thousands of students, adults, and ourselves about the requirements to run for the Presidency! We generated discussion about "No 270" and how a third party/write-in could win by getting the election thrown to the House of Representatives per the 12th Amendment. Our ideas, posts, and videos were shared by thousands - which kept getting the word out. Seeing our posts on other candidates' sites and Facebook pages was reassuring that we were on to something big. We gave people hope and refuge during an election season that had many abandoning faith in the electoral process. I received letters, e-mails, and messages via social media from people I had never met expressing what our campaign meant to them. Our campaign gave them HOPE in the "system". We even had a 90-year-old supporter comment that her first election saw her vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt and that we could count on her vote in November. (Talk about some favorable company!) A woman from New York (a state that saw us pick up 41 votes) sent one of the most incredible messages to our campaign's Facebook account in which she detailed why our campaign meant so much to her personally.
One supporter e-mailed our campaign: "I became aware of your candidacy late, on November 3rd, because I just so happened to catch Jack Lessenberry's editorial on Michigan Radio's NPR station. I'm very proud to say, "I voted for the high school teacher!" For the first time in my voting in TEN general elections, I finally feel that MY VOTE WAS ACTUALLY COUNTED in last November's election! Thank you for running and giving nearly a 1,000 of us a voice (and teaching some people a little bit about this great country of ours)! Has the countdown to '20 started yet?"
A man from France (yes, FRANCE), contacted me and marveled at the idea of a "common man" running for President. He couldn't wrap his head around how this was even possible. The outpouring of support across this country (and from across the Atlantic) was unlike anything we expected. Everywhere my son and I went, we were stopped and asked questions about our campaign. Whether we were at the library, the pool, car wash, the mall, restaurants, or the park, we found ourselves engaged in amazing conversations. My son's eyes would beam, and he would smile as people recognized him from our advertisements and social media posts. I loved every minute of these opportunities to further the dialogue. Our campaign allowed people to leave the polls with their heads held high. (In fact, we made sure to drive home that point in one of our final advertisements [pictured below].)
A. Hands down, my students - my campaign helpers - received the most authentic educational experience about running for President because they ACTUALLY helped someone run for President! Mickey Mouse and dead gorillas aside, we provided legitimacy and a new understanding of what it means to write in a SERIOUS candidate for office.
B. We educated thousands of students, adults, and ourselves about the requirements to run for the Presidency! We generated discussion about "No 270" and how a third party/write-in could win by getting the election thrown to the House of Representatives per the 12th Amendment. Our ideas, posts, and videos were shared by thousands - which kept getting the word out. Seeing our posts on other candidates' sites and Facebook pages was reassuring that we were on to something big. We gave people hope and refuge during an election season that had many abandoning faith in the electoral process. I received letters, e-mails, and messages via social media from people I had never met expressing what our campaign meant to them. Our campaign gave them HOPE in the "system". We even had a 90-year-old supporter comment that her first election saw her vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt and that we could count on her vote in November. (Talk about some favorable company!) A woman from New York (a state that saw us pick up 41 votes) sent one of the most incredible messages to our campaign's Facebook account in which she detailed why our campaign meant so much to her personally.
One supporter e-mailed our campaign: "I became aware of your candidacy late, on November 3rd, because I just so happened to catch Jack Lessenberry's editorial on Michigan Radio's NPR station. I'm very proud to say, "I voted for the high school teacher!" For the first time in my voting in TEN general elections, I finally feel that MY VOTE WAS ACTUALLY COUNTED in last November's election! Thank you for running and giving nearly a 1,000 of us a voice (and teaching some people a little bit about this great country of ours)! Has the countdown to '20 started yet?"
A man from France (yes, FRANCE), contacted me and marveled at the idea of a "common man" running for President. He couldn't wrap his head around how this was even possible. The outpouring of support across this country (and from across the Atlantic) was unlike anything we expected. Everywhere my son and I went, we were stopped and asked questions about our campaign. Whether we were at the library, the pool, car wash, the mall, restaurants, or the park, we found ourselves engaged in amazing conversations. My son's eyes would beam, and he would smile as people recognized him from our advertisements and social media posts. I loved every minute of these opportunities to further the dialogue. Our campaign allowed people to leave the polls with their heads held high. (In fact, we made sure to drive home that point in one of our final advertisements [pictured below].)
C. One of the biggest things I think our campaign accomplished was pointing out that so many states had conflicting information between their Board of Elections and Secretary of State offices concerning write-in candidates. So many of their websites failed to provide the necessary information for write-in candidates, had broken links, or contained out-of-date forms. At one point, the S-o-S office in Michigan told us to "just cross out" the wrong information on the application forms and write in what needed to be there. (Seriously.) A few weeks after the election, I returned to these websites and can happily report that all of the information is now up-to-date and correct. The proper forms are also in place (including Michigan).
D. We started the process of tearing down the archaic structures that deny people the opportunity to truly let their voices be heard. Mary Beth Richardson was upset that her home state of South Carolina prohibits write-ins for Federal Elections (as do eight other states) because she wanted to vote for us. She came across our campaign while researching candidates since she refused to support either Clinton or Trump. Through her amazing efforts and in her communication with two of her state senators and representatives (neither of which knew exactly why South Carolina prohibited write-ins), the Committee on Judiciary is in the process of repealing this 50-year-old law thanks to House Bill 3163 [pictured below]! Absolutely incredible! Can you believe this? A classroom campaign and a single supporter will one day overturn a state law. Think about that. Think about the amazing power in that.
D. We started the process of tearing down the archaic structures that deny people the opportunity to truly let their voices be heard. Mary Beth Richardson was upset that her home state of South Carolina prohibits write-ins for Federal Elections (as do eight other states) because she wanted to vote for us. She came across our campaign while researching candidates since she refused to support either Clinton or Trump. Through her amazing efforts and in her communication with two of her state senators and representatives (neither of which knew exactly why South Carolina prohibited write-ins), the Committee on Judiciary is in the process of repealing this 50-year-old law thanks to House Bill 3163 [pictured below]! Absolutely incredible! Can you believe this? A classroom campaign and a single supporter will one day overturn a state law. Think about that. Think about the amazing power in that.
E. Our campaign used an amazing article about the mathematical analysis that examined a "throw away" vote and why our campaign was anything but that. Sent to us from a supporter and longtime family friend (Jodie Bailey), it gave legitimacy to what we were trying to do by getting people to BELIEVE in their vote. This article became our campaign's Declaration of Independence, and we soon had it circulating across all of our social media accounts.
F. We were able to show the power of social media while trying to become official in Kentucky, Arizona, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Without Facebook, we could never have picked up these states. So many people volunteered their names and addresses - in some cases their signatures - or helped us track down people that could help. Even greater is the fact that so many different people got to officially serve as our Electoral College representatives! If ever there was a campaign community effort, this was it!
G. Reconnecting with classmates, friends, and former students, meeting new people, and forming new friendships - all because of the campaign and the power our supporters gave it - was incredible. Seeing people in our campaign shirts and putting our signs in their yards... and then watching as people changed their profile pictures and backgrounds on their social media accounts to images from our campaign... made it so real. I was frequently speechless at the level of support people gave to our campaign. This doesn't mean we didn't have our share of negative comments or posts made about what we were trying to do. If nothing else, the fact that our campaign struck a nerve with the naysayers showed me we were "legit" and had the potential to shake things up. The key thing, however, was that we sparked DIALOGUE! Genuine dialogue! This is exactly what we hoped to do! The more and more that people talked about a write-in candidate... the more and more the idea became embedded in the public's mind. When one of the first eight votes cast at midnight to begin Election Day in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire was a write-in vote for Mitt Romney, I realized that write-in campaigns were going to be taken seriously. The fact that my students pointed out that such a vote for Mitt couldn't count because he wasn't registered as a write-in candidate was an even better sign! They were paying attention... and learning! That's a major WIN!
H. The fact that so many teachers and professors at EVERY level (elementary, middle school, high school school, and college) found a way to use or discuss our campaign made this thing such a powerful tool to show students why their vote matters - and, more importantly, why THEY could become President one day. It's this wide-eyed wonderment that greeted me everywhere I went when meeting students and in discussing the campaign that showed me just how important our message had become.
In the end, we did not win the Election of 2016. However, what we gained was an understanding and a belief in ourselves and the power that our voices truly have. And no matter what anyone says, gaining that kind of self-realization can never be taken away.
Our campaign was a major success.
Our campaign gave us all hope.
Our campaign showed my son - and hopefully other ADULTS - that campaign's don't need to be negative to be effective.
Our campaign paved a trail for future candidates to follow. It showed that ANYONE can run for political office... at ANY level... and SHOULD. No longer do we have to watch from the sidelines. If any of my students or anyone that followed us in 2016 becomes politically active because of the campaign, then my job here is done.
This was, without a doubt, the greatest lesson plan I've ever created.
(But don't rule out a second run in 2020 just yet...)
F. We were able to show the power of social media while trying to become official in Kentucky, Arizona, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Without Facebook, we could never have picked up these states. So many people volunteered their names and addresses - in some cases their signatures - or helped us track down people that could help. Even greater is the fact that so many different people got to officially serve as our Electoral College representatives! If ever there was a campaign community effort, this was it!
G. Reconnecting with classmates, friends, and former students, meeting new people, and forming new friendships - all because of the campaign and the power our supporters gave it - was incredible. Seeing people in our campaign shirts and putting our signs in their yards... and then watching as people changed their profile pictures and backgrounds on their social media accounts to images from our campaign... made it so real. I was frequently speechless at the level of support people gave to our campaign. This doesn't mean we didn't have our share of negative comments or posts made about what we were trying to do. If nothing else, the fact that our campaign struck a nerve with the naysayers showed me we were "legit" and had the potential to shake things up. The key thing, however, was that we sparked DIALOGUE! Genuine dialogue! This is exactly what we hoped to do! The more and more that people talked about a write-in candidate... the more and more the idea became embedded in the public's mind. When one of the first eight votes cast at midnight to begin Election Day in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire was a write-in vote for Mitt Romney, I realized that write-in campaigns were going to be taken seriously. The fact that my students pointed out that such a vote for Mitt couldn't count because he wasn't registered as a write-in candidate was an even better sign! They were paying attention... and learning! That's a major WIN!
H. The fact that so many teachers and professors at EVERY level (elementary, middle school, high school school, and college) found a way to use or discuss our campaign made this thing such a powerful tool to show students why their vote matters - and, more importantly, why THEY could become President one day. It's this wide-eyed wonderment that greeted me everywhere I went when meeting students and in discussing the campaign that showed me just how important our message had become.
In the end, we did not win the Election of 2016. However, what we gained was an understanding and a belief in ourselves and the power that our voices truly have. And no matter what anyone says, gaining that kind of self-realization can never be taken away.
Our campaign was a major success.
Our campaign gave us all hope.
Our campaign showed my son - and hopefully other ADULTS - that campaign's don't need to be negative to be effective.
Our campaign paved a trail for future candidates to follow. It showed that ANYONE can run for political office... at ANY level... and SHOULD. No longer do we have to watch from the sidelines. If any of my students or anyone that followed us in 2016 becomes politically active because of the campaign, then my job here is done.
This was, without a doubt, the greatest lesson plan I've ever created.
(But don't rule out a second run in 2020 just yet...)