A 19-year-old college student accidentally launched a political career when he wrote his own name in for an election category no one else bothered to vote in.
Asad Asif of New Jersey’s Rutgers University was sworn into office as a member of the Middlesex County Republican Committee earlier this month, New Brunswick Today reported, though he never intended for his vote on June 3 to be anything more than a joke.
“It was kind of like the ‘Mickey Mouse vote,’ where people write in stupid names when they vote for president,” he told the newspaper. “I wanted to do the same thing, and since there was no real candidate in the slot, I decided to write myself in.”
Asif will now have a hand in deciding who receives the Republican endorsement in local, legislative, county and statewide elections, although he says he does not identify with any party and has few ties to the GOP.
“I don’t know anyone who votes Republican,” he told Campus Reform.
However, Asif has joined a sizable committee with more than 1,000 seats, about half of which are currently filled, the committee’s chairman, state Sen. Sam Thompson, told New Brunswick Today.
(h/t Mediaite)
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