Whimsical Write-In Votes No Laughing Matter for Election Officials

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Is the price right for Bob Barker to become Lewis County’s next treasurer? Could Chuck Norris punch his way into office as our 19th Legislative District representative?

Don’t get your hopes up. The answer is a resounding no, although some intrepid voters in Lewis County’s most recent primary election wrote those names in on ballots.

Several celebrities and well-known names from the past turned up as “candidates” for elected positions in the August primary, thanks to the provision to allow voters to write in a candidate of their choice if they choose not to vote for the listed candidates.

It’s inevitable whenever it comes time to vote in county-wide elections, and Lewis County Elections Supervisor Marianne Zumbuhl knows it’s part of the job. Democracy means offering people a choice, even if it affords voters the opportunity to write someone in.

But elections officials wish people would take that write-in opportunity a bit more seriously. Most do, Zumbuhl said, but those that don’t create more work for those counting ballots.

“It really takes our canvassing clerks a ton of time to sort through,” Zumbuhl said Thursday. “Some people will even mark the write-in box but won’t put a name down, and that means our clerks have to do the work to nullify their ballot because they didn’t write anyone in.”

Legitimate write-in campaigns have varying degrees of success, ranging from those who fell short to candidates who pulled off improbable upsets. Longtime local residents may remember one of the more famous ones in recent history, when Linda Smith mounted a write-in campaign in 1994 that led to her winning the Republican primary for the 3rd Congressional District. Smith then won the general election that year against Jolene Unsoeld, who had held office for three terms.

In this year’s primary election, no single write-in candidate registered more than four votes. Elected positions receiving the most write-in votes were prosecuting attorney with 113, county clerk with 95 and treasurer with 94.

All three of those positions were uncontested.



“We tend to get more write-ins when there is only one candidate on the ballot,” Zumbuhl explained.

Spelling is vital when it comes to write-in candidates. Those who write a candidate’s name need to ensure they spell correctly, or the system won’t automatically catch the error.

Case in point: Local attorney and morning talk radio host John Panesko received three votes for prosecuting attorney, with — read carefully — John Panesco and John Pensco receiving one vote each.

Kenneth Cheeseman, who ran for sheriff in 2010, received three write-in votes. Ken Cheeseman received two votes, and Kenny Cheesman received one. In all, they total six votes for the same person in theory, but three different spellings split the vote three ways.

Zumbuhl, who spoke to The Chronicle from the Lewis County Auditor’s Office as a sign reading “If you can’t vote, you can’t complain” hung from the wall in the distance, said that while some write-in votes are legitimate, others give staff a chuckle — but in the end, whimsical votes with no real motivation behind them are no laughing matter for officials who try to stress the point that each vote matters.

“Sometimes we wonder if people just want us to vote for them,” Zumbuhl laughed. “I don’t know why, because it’s incredibly easy to vote in Washington state.”

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Christopher Brewer: (360) 807-8235