Not sure who to vote for in the Kent School Board race?
How about Mickey Mouse?
Don’t laugh. According to 2009 Primary Election Recount Write-In Report, the mouse was among the leading write-in vote-getters in the Aug. 18 primary election.
Sure, he only got three votes. But really, when you think about it, that’s not bad for a cartoon rodent.
Mickey’s wasn’t the only famous name to show up on the write-in report. Captain Hook and Darth Vader each picked up a vote, though one has to imagine their day jobs as pirate and evil Sith lord, respectively, might keep them out of serious contention.
Not to worry, though: both Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, the secret identities of caped crime fighters Superman and Batman, each picked up votes, though again, since one has to live in the Kent School District to serve on the board, the Metropolis and Gotham City residents did not make the final ballot.
There were, of course, actual names among the write-in candidates, including former east Hill Elementary School Principal Kyle Good and other community members.
Of the named write-ins, George Baver collected the most votes with five.
But also collecting votes were Jesus Christ, Pee Wee Herman and Jerry Cantrell, the guitar player and songwriter for Seattle-based rock band Alice in Chains.
One man even cast a vote for his genitalia, though the phrase he actually wrote in was a bit off-color for a family paper such as this.
According to King County Election Communications Officer Kim van Ekstrom, write-in reports are only generated during a recount, such as the one last week to determine the second ballot line in the Kent School Board Director District No. 5 race.
In that race, the mandatory machine recount reaffirmed Dale Smith’s second-place finish over Dave Watson for the final ballot line. Tim Clark finished in first with more than 50 percent of the vote.
According to van Ekstrom, the write-in report is created after ballots from the contested race are pulled and re-run through the machine, to determine if any of the names are actually votes for a candidate.
“If we have to go back and do a recount every ballot cast in that election gets pulled,” she said. “The only time we tabulate names of a write-ins is if there’s a recount.”
Whether serious votes or not, van Ekstrom said the people opening the ballots or tabulating the recount would of course notice the range of names for whom ballots were cast.
“I can’t imagine they wouldn’t smile at some of the names,” she said, calling the list of cartoons and celebrities “business as usual” during election time.
So which write-in candidate collected the most votes?
“None of the Above,” with 12.
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