Conflicting information- Did the president get a mandate of the Florida vote?

[Benj]

It depends on whether or not you consider write-ins of random people to be valid votes.

This. Obama got 50.01% of the vote when you only include registered write-ins, but if you include unregistered write-ins (who don't get counted under Florida law), he got 49.91% of the vote.

[Benj]

So the Atlas takes into account votes that are officially invalid. That's weird.

I agree. However, Atlas has always included write-in votes for candidates who are not registered as write-ins.

Part of the problem is that states have different policies towards such votes. In some states, you can win as a write-in even if you're not registered as a write-in, and thus they count each write-in candidate's votes separately (even votes for Mickey Mouse, Lizard People,* etc.). In other states, unregistered write-in votes don't get differentiated between candidates but are reported. In a few states, votes for unregistered write-ins are considered invalid and not included in official vote reports. I believe Florida is in the last category, but the unregistered write-in vote is nonetheless available in unofficial reports and was included by Dave.

*The Lizard People ballot lives on!