Mickey Mouse, Obama, John Barge net votes
“Anyone else” remains the top choice among write-in candidates in Floyd County’s general election.
State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler pulled in three Floyd County votes for governor in the general election last week and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle received two.
The votes, which are not counted, are among the write-ins that residents opted to support instead of the candidates listed on the ballot. Four candidates — three for governor, one for state school superintendent — qualified as write-ins, which means votes for them would have counted. None received votes in Floyd.
Seventeen local voters wrote in choices for the governor’s race, according to Floyd County Elections Department records, and someone in the Mount Alto North precinct wrote “Elohem” for every contest. The word is one of the names signifying God in the Hebrew Bible.
The uncontested races drew the most write-ins, with 547 of the 25,156 people voting in County Commissioner Larry Maxey’s re-election entering other names. County Commissioner Scotty Hancock, the other unopposed candidate in a countywide race, lost 466 of the 25,624 ballots cast to write-ins.
Old standards such as Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam showed up with regularity, but names of real people also appear on the list of tossed votes.
In Hufstetler’s state Senate face-off with Evan Ross, for example, among the candidates voters offered instead were County Attorney Wade Hoyt, former county prison warden Jeff Chandler and Assistant County Police Chief Tom Ewing.
The most write-ins for a contested race came in the U.S. House District 14 election that saw Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, prevail over Democrat Steven Foster, who campaigned from jail while serving a DUI sentence.
Among the 45 other choices, “Anybody Else” and its variations were the favorite. Some votes also went to former Rome city commissioner Buzz Wachsteter, local attorney David Guldenschuh, Graves’ 2016 challenger Mickey Tuck, homeless shelter founder William Davies, Vermin Supreme and “Someone who will stand up to Trump.”
Kanye West got a vote in the Howell precinct for lieutenant governor. Ted Metz, the Libertarian governor candidate, and David Shafer, who lost in the Republican primary, each received two.
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor, also got four write-in votes for agriculture commissioner — one each in the precincts of Glenwood, East Lindale, Cave Spring and Garden Lakes.
For state school superintendent, three voters chose former state school superintendent John Barge of Rome.
Write-ins for state House District 12, where Rep. Eddie Lumsden was unopposed, ranged from Obama and Bruce Wayne to Bob Dylan and the previous representative, Barbara Massey Reece.
Several announced candidates got nods in the state House District 14 race. Incumbent Christian Coomer, who was unopposed, withdrew just before the election when he was sworn in as a Georgia Appeals Court judge.
A special election date hasn’t yet been set but Coomer’s father, Ken Coomer, said he’s running. He pulled one vote. Mitchell Scoggins, who also said he will run, got two votes. Racer Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Harambe, the gorilla who became an internet meme, were among the other write-ins along with attorney Ken Fuller, who received three votes.