Write-in Candidate for Sheriff in Montana Loses Because Election Officials Won’t Count Votes with only His Surname

Powell County, Montana, held an election for Sheriff on November 4. The only name on the ballot was the incumbent, but a write-in candidate, Gavin Roselles, had a strong campaign. The official returns show the write-in candidate losing by a vote of 994 to 904. However, 138 write-in votes were disallowed, mostly because the voter only wrote in the surname “Roselles” instead of “G. Roselles” or “Gavin Roselles.” Also some write-ins were disallowed because the voter didn’t fill in the oval next to the name that had just been written in. See this story. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the link.


Comments

Write-in Candidate for Sheriff in Montana Loses Because Election Officials Won’t Count Votes with only His Surname — 3 Comments

  1. Those voters who showed clear intend by writing in enough of the write-in candidate’s name, should have their votes counted. But those who did not darken the bubble next to the “written in” name, should not be counted, as most ballots clearly instruct the voter to fill in the bubble next to the name of the candidate vote for.

    In this past election, I wrote in the names of those candidates I preferred, even though their names were already printed on the ballot, yet I knew I had to fill in the bubble next to their name or else my vote would not count.

    If a voter cannot follow simple instructions, their vote should not be counted.

  2. Demo Rep:

    The U.S. Senator you are referring to is Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who won re-election by write-in, and had, as best I can research, over 10,000 votes more than her closet opponent whose name was on the ballot.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.