ANDERSON — Country singer Willie Nelson, former wrestler Jesse Ventura and Mark Harvey, a local bank loan officer, managed to win a few Madison County votes without so much as a single campaign speech.
A tally of the county’s write-in votes cast Nov. 4 for president showed around 150 ballots supporting 30 different people, some real and some imaginary. Some of those votes counted, but most did not.
The two biggest write-in winners were certified independent presidential candidates Ralph Nader, who collected 39 votes, and Chuck Baldwin, who got 29.
Because those tickets (and eight others) registered with the state as write-in candidates, their votes were officially counted, Madison County Election Director Mary Retherford explained Monday.
Handwritten votes for nonregistered candidates were essentially tossed out, she said.
Therefore, the 26 votes for one-time Republican hopeful Ron Paul and the 20 votes for former Democratic candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won’t become part of the county’s official vote count.
Other noncandidates received just a few votes each. Ventura won one, as did Nelson. Republican Mike Huckabee took two. Conservative black activist Alan Keys also grabbed two votes. Three voters put their faith in Jesus on Election Day. Two flocked to Big Bird.
A two-person team spent about three hours tabulating write-in votes, most of which didn’t count, Madison County Clerk Ludy Watkins said.
“The guy that was on the write-in team said this is a waste of taxpayer money, because yes, it is a wasted vote,” Watkins said.
But Union Township resident Dan Clayton didn’t care that his vote for friend Mark Harvey got tossed. Clayton said that while he leans Democrat he couldn’t decide between Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain, so he wrote down Harvey’s name and then used his cell phone to send a photo to his friend from the voting machine.
“I thought he was joking,” said Harvey, who works for Huntington Bank as a loan officer.
Harvey said he has never run for political office but probably will in the future. If he does, he’s likely to have Clayton’s support.
But when Harvey learned that the one vote he’d captured in this year’s presidential race didn’t count, he just said, “That’s terrible.”
Local News
9:28 p.m.: Write-in voters choose Jesus over Big Bird
Most handwritten votes don’t count
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