Federal Election Commission To Crack Down On 'Deez Nuts' As Presidential Candidate

from the you-take-the-fun-out-of-everything dept

In this somewhat insane presidential election, about the only non-terrifying entertainment that came out of it happened last summer when Public Policy Polling (PPP) released a poll showing that "Deez Nuts" would get 9% of the vote. The more web savvy among you may know that "Deez Nuts" was a popular web meme earlier in 2015, but it didn't quite explain how it got into the poll. It turned out that a 15 year old kid named Brady Olson had filled out the necessary paperwork under the name Deez Nuts, and PPP had decided to toss it into their poll as a bit of fun. The attention paid to Deez Nuts as a political candidate resulted in a bunch of other silly names filling out the paperwork as well -- including Butt Stuff, Mr. Not Sure and Sir TrippyCup aka Young Trippz aka The GOAT aka The Prophet aka Earl.

Of course, after that initial flurry of attention, most people mostly forgot about Deez Nuts, the fake Presidential candidate.... until this week.

You see, earlier this week PPP released a new poll showing that Green Party candidate Jill Stein was trailing Deez Nuts in Texas (also trailing, Harambe, the dead gorilla who is also now something of an internet meme).

And, just like that, it seems the renewed attention may have killed this bit of fun. A day later, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced that it will start cracking down on Deez Nuts and other such candidates. It has now started to include a verification procedure for "possibly false or fictitious names."

Yeah, it seems the FEC can't take a joke.

The Commission has authorized staff to send verification letters to filers listing fictional characters, obscene language, sexual references, celebrities (where there is no indication that the named celebrity submitted the filing), animals, or similarly implausible entries as the name or contact information of the candidate or committee.

And they're not kidding around. Part of the process of sending out these letters will remind filers that the FEC may "pursue or refer action for false filing under 52 U.S.C. Section 30109(a) or otherwise report such filings under 52 U.S. C. Section 30107(a)(9)." So, uh, yeah. So, long, Presidential Candidate Deez Nuts. We hardly knew you.

Filed Under: deez nuts, elections, fec