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Porter County write-in ballots give nod to Kanye West; Mike Pence gets two votes for president in Lake

If impromptu write-in candidates in Porter County could have been elected president, Kanye West would have been the big winner.

Kim Kardashian’s spouse and unabashed admirer of President Donald Trump received 20 votes in the Nov. 3 general election and garnered more votes than Mickey Mouse or Jesus Christ, Sundae Schoon, director of Elections and Voter Registration, said Friday as the election board met to certify the election results.

“He was one of the big ones,” she said, adding the gloved Disney mascot only swayed three voters.

Other write-ins, dead, alive or fictional, included George Washington; Harry Truman; Jon Bon Jovi; Keith Richards; Dolly Parton; Bernie Sanders; Andrew Yang; and Sponge Bob Square Pants.

A number of voters, Schoon said, preferred “none of the above,” and one woman voted for herself, including a campaign pitch of sorts.

“If you’re going to vote for yourself, you might as well tell us why,” she said.

While the Indiana Election Commission sends county election officials a list of certified write-in candidates, not all write-in candidates are certified candidates. In the 2020 general election, there were 12 certified write-in candidates in Indiana, said Lake County Election and Voter Registration Board Director Michelle Fajman.

American Solidarity Party Candidate Brian Carroll; Green Party Candidate Howie Hawkins; and Independents Randall F, Shawn Howard, Abram Loeb, Valerie McCray, Deborah Rouse, Joe Schriner, Christopher Stried, Kasey Wells, Mitchell Williams and James L. Johnson Jr. were the official write-in candidates.

In Lake County, there were 488 write-in votes, of which 116 were cast for the certified write-in candidates: 76 for Hawkins, 33 for Carroll and one each for Howard, McCray, Stried, Williams, Johnson Jr., Fajman said.

Porter County voters offered up 30 votes for Carroll; 66 for Hawkins; two for Howard; and one for Wells.

Vice President Michael Pence received two write-in votes in Lake County, so Fajman said the county counted those two votes for President Donald Trump and Pence, as listed on the ballot.

That means 372 write-in votes were either marked by mistake or cast for a non-certified candidate, such as a fictional character, Fajman said, adding Lake County officials do not keep track of votes cast for non-certified candidates.

“We don’t want to encourage people throwing away their votes by voting for a non-declared candidate,” she said. “We don’t want to make the voting process a joke.”

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.