For more than 900 Johnson County voters, the choices for president on their fall ballot just didn’t quite cut it.
With a trio of options consisting of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Gary Johnson, they instead opted for an eclectic list of write-in candidates, a traditional and often amusing form of protest at the poll booth.
The choices included third party and independent candidates like Jill Stein and Evan McMullin, former primary contenders Bernie Sanders, John Kasich and Ted Cruz and celebrities such, as Peyton Manning and Dwayne Johnson.
Others sought divine intervention with five votes for variations of Jesus Christ.
Mickey Mouse garnered three votes. Other fictional characters included Darth Vader, Toucan Sam and Cthulhu, a deity from H.P. Lovecraft’s novels.
One voter made his stance on the Republican ticket quite clear with a write-in of “Mike Pence only.”
The number of write-ins was more than double the amount from the last two general elections combined. Less than 200 people submitted write-in candidates in the presidential races in both 2008 and 2012.
The number of write-ins is a testament to how polarizing the candidates were this year, Johnson County Clerk Susie Misiniec said.
For some voters, neither Clinton nor Trump were the choice they wanted, she said.
That likely explained the write-in votes for “none of the above,” “no confidence,” “none,” “leave office vacant” and a simplistic “no.”
Even with the write-in option, about 600 voters — less than 1 percent of those who voted in the election — decided not to cast a vote for president at all.
While none of the write-in votes garnered nearly enough support to influence the outcome of the election, if they had, most of them wouldn’t have counted anyway, Misiniec said.
Indiana law requires write-in candidates to request approval from the Secretary of State. Only 15 candidates were certified.
