If Obama gets more pledged delegates but Clinton wins by super delegates can you still cast your vote for Obama as a write-in candidate at the general election?

Answer 1

If Obama received more pledged delegates (voted for), superdelegates (appointed by the party, mostly elected officials) would feel tremendous pressure to vote similarly.

Each state has different rules regarding electors and write-in votes, so it's hard to say how they would pick electors in the unlikely scenario that a write-in candidate wins. States generally require that a candidate's desired electors be chosen in advance of the election, but that clearly wouldn't happen with a write-in candidate. A few states require write-in votes to include the name of an elector as well. But generally, if a write-in candidate were to receive a plurality of the votes, it would be up to each state's legislature to sort it out. According to the US Constitution, each state legislature can decide how they apportion their electors. Early in our country's history, many states didn't have their people vote for president, instead the state legislatures voted for President (by assigning electors). But every state eventually changed to using a popular vote. If there is doubt on how to proceed, the buck stops at the state legislature, who can, in a pinch, select electors themselves. In 2000, the Florida legislature was preparing to choose electors if the popular vote wasn't finalized in time for the Electoral College deadline; the Florida legislature is controlled by Republicans, and would obviously have chosen electors pledged to Bush.

With that said, the US two-party system is fairly entrenched, and a write-in campaign is generally an exercise in futility. Furthermore, Senator Obama has clearly stated that he would endorse and campaign for the Democratic nominee, so those writing him in would be going against his wishes.