In most cases, write-in votes have no effect on an election, said Clarion County Director of elections Ron Kuzmovich, but there are exceptions.

Sometimes a candidate wages a write-in campaign; Fred McIlhattan has done this in primary elections and won the Democratic nomination for state representative, meaning he had both party nominations and therefore wrapped up the election in the spring.

And sometimes people run for an office – township supervisors for example – where 100 votes or so is all it takes to win, and they stage a last minute write-in campaign and win the office.

But usually, a write-in vote is cast as a protest, a desire to suggest a person for a particular office, or just a little foolishness.

In the recent primary election in Clarion County, no one won any nomination by write-in, Kuzmovich said, though quite a few such votes were cast – 1,163 of them to be exact.

This is partly because there were no municipal positions up for nomination, and partly because the Republican County Committee elections held this primary requires that a candidate receive at least ten votes to win a committee position.

This isn’t a Republican Party rule, however. In a general election, there is no lower limit for winning an election. If there are no names on the ballot, a single write-in vote is enough, if it is the only vote cast.

When this happens, Kuzmovich said, the elections office tries to determine if the person receiving the vote is eligible for the office; eligibility is based on whether the vote getter lives in the legislative district or municipality involved and (except for school directors) whether the person is a registered voter.

If so, the vote-getter is contacted to see if he or she wants to accept the position. No one is forced to be on borough council, or a township supervisor, if they don’t want to be, he said.

Kuzmovich said write-ins are often cast as protest votes, and while this has little effect on who wins the office in question, such a vote is not wasted if the person feels good about it and is serious in their intent.

Politicians, party officials and pundits may pay attention to such votes to gauge voter attitudes.

Kuzmovich said he believes that, unless the ballot position is empty, such votes accomplish little.

And some folks write in the name of a buddy or a cartoon character or some celebrity or fictional personage, Kuzmovich indicated that is definitely a wasted vote, and a sign of disrespect for the electoral process.

Type-in votes

With the advent of computer voting machines in Clarion County , write-in votes have actually become “type-in” votes, as the touch-screen machines use a mouse and a display of letters to allow votes to cast a write in vote.

Kuzmovich said this makes it easier for his office to read and tally such votes. Bad handwriting is no longer a problem, and poll workers no longer have to copy out write in votes onto a tally form – the computer system simply prints out the list.

Spelling is still an issue, but Kuzmovich says his office is pretty lenient when write-ins are counted.

If a voter comes close to spelling a candidates name correctly, that vote is usually counted as valid for that candidate.

Candidates who run a deliberate write-in campaign are not required to do so, but many provide the elections office with a list of alternate spellings of their names that voters might use.

Again using McIlhattan as an example, Kuzmovich said the local legislator has received write-in votes using a couple dozen different spelling variations.

Kuzmovich has print-outs of all the write-in votes cast in Clarion County . He also noted that the results of the vote at each polling place, including all the write-is cast, is posted on the outside of that polling place immediately following the election.

Some offices attract more write-in votes than others. Those with no listed candidates often get many; and those with a lot of frustration, controversy or media attention also see quite a few.

Presidential primary

In Clarion County last month, the nomination for US president, both republican and Democrat, attracted quite a few write-ins – 2.2 percent of the total on the Democratic side and nearly 4 percent on the Republican side.

It was a Democrat who got the most write-ins for the Republican nomination: Hillary Clinton pulled in 116 votes, Barack Obama drew 55. Republican Mitt Romney was third with 12, followed by Fred Thompson with 4. Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee were on the Republican ballot, but one voter each apparently felt compelled to write those names in anyway.

Others written in include Alan Keys, General Petraeus, Rick Santorum, Sam Brownback and Newt Gingrich, along with Democrats John Edwards and Mike Gravel.

On Democratic side for the presidential nominations, Republicans written in include John McCain with 49, Ron Paul with 29 and Mike Huckabee with seven.

A few Democrats were written in as well. Al Gore got one, as did Tom Vilsack. Independent candidate Ralph Nader pulled in two votes.