You’ve probably seen the memes. You know the one—the guy in the kitchen, the self-proclaimed "President of the United States" with the deadpan delivery. Brent Peterson. For a while there, it felt like he was everywhere on TikTok. People were genuinely curious if the joke had crossed over into reality.
Honestly, the question of how many people voted for Brent Peterson isn't just about a meme; it’s a weirdly fascinating look at how the internet interacts with the American electoral system. It turns out that running for president is a lot harder than hitting "record" on a smartphone. While he certainly had the "clout," converting followers into actual legal votes is a bureaucratic nightmare that Brent Peterson—the internet personality—didn't quite navigate to the finish line in a traditional sense.
The Reality of the Brent Peterson Vote Count
Let's get the big number out of the way. If you’re looking for a massive, six-figure total for Brent Peterson in the official 2024 results, you’re going to be disappointed. He wasn't on the ballot in the way Donald Trump or Kamala Harris were. He didn't even have the minor-party presence of someone like Jill Stein or Chase Oliver.
In most states, Brent Peterson didn't qualify for the ballot. Period.
Take Florida, for example. Official records from the Florida Division of Elections show that a Brent Alan Peterson filed to run as a candidate with no party affiliation. His status? Did not qualify. He filed papers in January 2024, but simply filing doesn't mean your name gets printed on the ballot. You need signatures—thousands of them. You need to meet strict deadlines. For a non-partisan candidate, the mountain is steep.
However, some people did actually write him in. In Allegany County, New York, for instance, unofficial results from the 2024 general election show "Brent Peterson" received exactly 1 write-in vote. Just one. That’s the reality of write-in campaigns; unless you are a "certified" write-in candidate in many states, your vote might not even be counted individually. It often just gets lumped into a "Scattering" or "Other" category.
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Why the Meme Didn't Equal Millions of Votes
It's kinda funny when you think about it. Brent has millions of views. If every person who liked one of his videos actually voted, he’d be a serious contender. But the gap between "liking a TikTok" and "finding the write-in line on a physical ballot" is massive.
Most of Brent's fans are younger, and many might not even be of voting age. Others live outside the United States. Even for those who can vote, the process of writing in a name is often a deterrent.
The Certification Hurdle
In many states, if you want your write-in votes to actually be tallied by name, you have to file as a "certified" write-in candidate weeks or months before the election. If you don't, the poll workers just see "Brent Peterson" and throw it into the "invalid" or "scattering" pile.
In Delaware, data showed him receiving 0% of the vote despite being listed as a write-in option. When you see a "0%" in election data, it usually means the candidate received fewer votes than the smallest measurable fraction—often just a handful of people in the entire state.
Who is the Real Brent Peterson?
There is a bit of a mix-up that happens online. People often confuse the "Brent Peterson" meme with other political figures or even the famous psychologist Jordan Peterson.
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The Brent Peterson we’re talking about is the one who became a viral sensation for his "Vote for Brent Peterson for President" videos. His campaign was largely a performance art piece or a satirical take on the modern political landscape. He leaned into the absurdity of a random guy claiming the highest office in the land.
He actually did take some official steps, though. He has a P.O. Box in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, which he used for his filing documents. But as any political expert will tell you, a P.O. Box and a dream don't win elections. You need a ground game. You need lawyers. You need a team that understands the varying laws of all 50 states.
Comparing Brent to Other Third-Party Candidates
To put his "campaign" in perspective, look at the actual third-party numbers from 2024.
- Jill Stein (Green Party): ~861,000 votes
- Chase Oliver (Libertarian): ~650,000 votes
- Claudia De La Cruz: ~165,000 votes
These are people with national organizations behind them. Even "Lucifer Everylove," a candidate who ran as an unaffiliated choice, managed to grab around 2,653 votes because they actually managed to get on the ballot in at least one jurisdiction.
Brent Peterson's "votes" are scattered in the wind. They are in the tens or perhaps hundreds, mostly from fans who wanted to take the joke to the ultimate level.
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The "Scattering" Category
When you look at national totals, there's often a line for "Scattering" or "Other write-ins" that accounts for about 0.2% of the total vote—roughly 235,000 people. Brent is in there somewhere. He's sharing that space with Mickey Mouse, "Jesus Christ," and "None of the Above."
What We Can Learn From the Brent Peterson Phenomenon
Basically, Brent Peterson proved that you can have a "platform" without having a "political party." He reached more people through his phone than most local politicians do in a lifetime of door-knocking.
But it also highlights the "ballot access" barrier in the US. It’s a bit of a gatekeeper system. If you aren't one of the big two, or a very well-funded third party, you basically don't exist on paper. For Brent's fans, the vote was a meme. For the electoral college, it was a clerical error.
If you’re genuinely interested in how the 2024 election shook out beyond the memes, you should look into the certified results from your specific Secretary of State’s website. You might find a few other surprise names in the write-in logs.
To see exactly where the fringe candidates landed, your next step should be to visit the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website or Ballotpedia. They track every certified candidate, including those who, like Brent, started with a filing but didn't quite make the final cut. You can also search for "2024 Unofficial Write-in Results" for your specific county to see if anyone in your neighborhood actually cast a vote for the "President of the United States."