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At the reaping if someone volunteers can the original (chosen from the glasses jar thing) tribute say no if they want to compete themselves, say a career was chosen and another career volunteered could the first career compete and say no to the other one?

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    Oct 16, 2014 at 14:34
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    Jul 13, 2015 at 18:32

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As shown in Catching Fire the tribute cannot override the volunteer as Haymitch gets chosen then Peeta volunteers. Haymitch does nothing about this even though he agrees with Katniss to do whatever it takes to stop Peeta going into the Quarter Quell.

As for volunteers volunteering instead of each other; in Districts 1, 2 and 4 the fact they get the careers volunteering is mentioned. There will most likely be a system to do with whoever does it first.

But there is no canon evidence in the trilogy of books. Maybe an interview or something in the films though.

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    Most likely the careers hold a shadow lottery among themselves to see who gets to volunteer, with the official 'reaping' being basically a formality.
    – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI
    Sep 29, 2014 at 5:25
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    ... Which explains why those Districts are so much more affluent -- without the dread of drawing extra lots in the Reaping there's nothing to fear about picking up extra checks.
    – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI
    Sep 29, 2014 at 5:26
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    @Shadur the districts can afford to train careers because they are affluent, not the other way around. Though surely being able to fearlessly get tesserae adds to their affluence. Also, I figured that the districts would only train one boy and one girl career for each year, so there wouldn't be any real "competition"...if there was competition, I'd guess it's based on their merits, not a lottery. Either way, yes, the reaping's a formality for career districts.
    – Tim S.
    Sep 29, 2014 at 16:36
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No, the reaped tribute can do nothing to veto volunteers, as seen in Catching Fire.

Before the Reaping, Katniss had talked to Haymitch about keeping Peeta out of the games if at all possible, and he told her that if Peeta was reaped, he would volunteer in his place, but that if he himself was reaped and Peeta volunteered, there would be nothing that he could do.

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No, chosen tributes can’t decline volunteers.

Tributes who are selected in the reaping cannot decline a volunteer. In the Quarter Quell, when Peeta and Haymitch were the only ones in the reaping, the one who was not picked had the option to volunteer.

“But one of them will be in the arena with me, and that’s a fact. They may have even decided between them who it will be. Whoever is picked first, the other will have the option of volunteering to take his place.”
- Catching Fire (Chapter 13)

If Haymitch was picked, he said it wouldn’t matter if he wanted to go in because Peeta would just volunteer to take his place. This shows that he would not then have the option to decline Peeta’s volunteering.

“I don’t know.” Haymitch sighs. “Go back in with you maybe, if I can. If my name’s drawn at the reaping, it won’t matter. He’ll just volunteer to take my place.”
- Catching Fire (Chapter 13)

Therefore, once someone volunteers for the Hunger Games, the chosen tribute cannot decline the volunteer.

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