As millions of Americans head to the polls for early voting and Election Day, many are expected to snub major party candidates, opting for write-ins such as House Speaker Paul Ryan or Sen. Bernie Sanders.

However, the majority of states, including Michigan, only recognize write-in votes if the candidate has pre-registered with state regulators and nine states ban write-ins completely.

The remainder of states have laws that allow write-ins, but some, like the District of Columbia, only tally the names if the raw number of write-in votes outnumber traditional ballots.