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ELECTION 2008

Write-in votes go to Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, Mickey Mouse and Jesus

Only those for legitimate candidate Keyes were valid in Nov. 4 presidential election.

By Josh Sweigart

Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio — Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Ron Paul received the most write-in votes on Butler County voting machines in this year's presidential election, according to Board of Elections records.

They received 57 and 41 votes, respectively, both securing landslide victories over Mickey Mouse.

Tied for third were Barack Obama and Jesus, with six votes each.

Of the 282 write-in votes for president, only the six for independent Alan Keyes — who fielded a legitimate write-in campaign — were valid.

Election officials said several people both voted properly 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 Elections Director Lynn Kinkaid.

An analysis of the 168 votes rendered on machines — the county doesn't track invalid votes on paper ballots — found many wrote in the name of someone who wasn't running, such as "George W. Bush" and "Gandi" (this is how a voter misspelled Gandhi). Misspellings were common. Clinton's name was entered 16 different ways.

Some of the write-ins 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." Still others voted 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. However, some of the dream team tickets included: Palin/Clinton, Palin/Obama and Clinton/Jesse Ventura.

But the most unusual write-in ticket: "JESUSRONPAUL." The voter didn't specify which person he or she wanted at the top of the ticket.

Jonah Haberstroh also got 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, who lived in West Chester Twp. during the election.

Haberstroh said he only cast a 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."

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