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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > December > 02 > Entry
Obama, Jesus tied in write-in votes
Hillary Clinton and Ron Paul received the most write-in votes on Butler County voting machines on Nov. 4, according to Board of Elections records.
They received 57 and 41 votes, respectively, both securing landslide victories over Mickey Mouse.
Tied for third was Barack Obama and Jesus, with six votes each.
Of the 282 write-in votes for president, only the six for independent candidate Alan Keyes — who fielded a legitimate write-in campaign — were valid.
Other votes went to fictional characters, real politicians who weren’t running and several celebrities and sports stars.
Here is the complete list of write-in votes on touchscreen machines:
Click on the top right corner to enlarge. Do you know any of these people?
The analysis:
Election officials said several voters both voted normally and wrote out the name of legitimate candidates. In these cases, each voter got one vote.
“All those had to be remade because our scanner wouldn’t take them like that,” said Deputy Board of Electiosn Director Lynn Kinkaid.
An analysis of the 168 votes rendered on machines — the county doesn’t track invalid votes on paper ballot — found many wrote in the name of someone who wasn’t running, such as “George W. Bush” and “Gandi”.
Some of these may have been in protest, such as votes for Clinton, Paul or Mike Huckabee. Or more dramatic protest: “N/A”, “No one” and “None of the above”.
Misspellings were common. Clinton’s name was spelled 16 different ways.
Still others vote for fictional characters, such as Batman and Bozo the clown. Mickey Mouse received only two votes, tying him with John Edwards and Sarah Palin.
Celebrities and sports stars won some political support, including Martin Sheen, Stephen Colbert, Pete Rose, Tiger Woods, Mike Ditka and Brett Favre.
Though election officials say a write-in vote must include both the candidate for president and vice-president, few people did this. Those that did, decided to build their own ticket: Palin’s name was written in with both Clinton’s and Obama’s. Clinton was also paired with Jesse Ventura.
But the most unusual ticket was a write in that said, “JESUSRONPAUL.” The voter didn’t specify which he or she wanted at the top of the ticket.
The self vote
Jonah Haberstroh also received one vote.
“I just wasn’t in love with either of the two candidates so I figured instead of throwing my vote away on an independent that wasn’t going to get in, I threw it away on myself,” said Haberstroh, 26, of West Chester Twp.
Haberstroh said he only went to the ballot to vote on statewide issues; specifically, the payday lending measure, because he works in that industry.
“Pretty much everything I voted for went the other way,” he said. “I couldn’t even get my wife to vote for me.”
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Board of Elections
Comments
By Thomas D. Porter
December 3, 2008 2:17 PM | Link to this
We all have the civic responsibility to vote. Unfortunately some do not see the seriousness of their vote, but they will be some of the first to complain about the issues!
By ignftor xcprhgdot
April 13, 2009 2:04 PM | Link to this
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