Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Warren County Commissioners Jeff Eggleston and Tricia Durbin open provisional ballots Monday as part of their responsibilities as members of the board of elections.

Voters can put any names they want on their ballots.

They can write themselves in for any race. They can put their neighbor’s name on a write-in line.

They can express their displeasure with their party for not having a ballot candidate.

Or, they can be silly.

There were hundreds of write-ins cast in the county last week.

Many of them were for Warren County politicians who were not up for any of the positions on the ballot.

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston was the leading write-in recipient for 65th District State Representative with more than 60 votes.

He did not win the position. Incumbent Rep. Kathy Rapp was on the ballot and received thousands of votes.

She was the only candidate for that position on the ballot and every other “race” had multiple options.

While some voters did bypass the opportunity to vote for one of several candidates for, for instance, Pennsylvania Auditor General, most of the write-ins were in the space for the 65th district — the one race that was not in any question.

For most ballots with write-ins — whether for Greg Fraser, John Wortman, Sir Patrick Stewart, or LeBron James — Director of Elections Lisa Rivett had to do a minimum of six clicks on her mouse to pull up the ballot, check both pages, confirm or deny, and assign a reason.

With more than 600 of those ballots, six clicks added up. The board spent hours Friday working on the count, then reconvened at 9 a.m. Monday and put in another four-plus.

For candidates who had announced their campaigns and been recognized in Pennsylvania, the board had to formally accept votes. There weren’t many of those. Two votes for Howie Hawkins — Green Party candidate for president — were accepted.

For almost every other write-in, the board rejected the vote. Chief Clerk Pam Matve recorded the names of votes that seemed to reflect real people who might be Warren County residents — like Eggleston, Fraser, Wortman, Mark and Karen Davis, Aaron Stearns, Connie Zaffino, and Brian Ferry.

They might have chuckled, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge the less serious votes, whether for living humans or not — Jeff Goldblum, John Mayer, Geddy Lee, Anthony Fauci, Kanye West, Mickey Mouse, Scooby Doo, Spongebob, the Lorax, term limits, a wet mop, the devil himself, my dog, Harambe, and any sentient being, were on that list.

After seeing his name struck about 50 times, Eggleston joked that it was hard on the ego. For each write-in but the few for Hawkins, the final click was on the box labeled — ‘rejected, not qualified.’