Is this the year that a write-in candidate wins?

With two people running for sheriff as write-in candidates in next month’s November General Election and one person running for third-district constable as a write-in candidate, you might be thinking that this must be some kind of record for write-in candidates running for office in Whitley County.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

If so, then you would be wrong.

In 2011, a total of nine people filed to run as write-in candidates for Whitley County Jailer. It was unusual to say the least.

In early 2011, after eight days in office, Les Moses resigned as jailer leading Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. to appoint Moses’ predecessor, Ken Mobley, as the acting jailer.

The appointment was until the results of a special election were certified, which took place in November.

The process was that the Whitley County Republican Party picked a nominee and the Whitley County Democratic Party picked a nominee, and they would square off during the special election, which would be held during the November General Election.

The Republicans picked Mobley as their nominee and the Democrats picked Joe Allen Fuson as their nominee.

Even though this was the process as set out by law, it didn’t sit well with quite a few people, who thought that there should have been a primary election to pick the party nominees thus leading nine people to file to run as write-in candidates.

Mobley received 3,540 votes to Fuson’s 1,504 votes while 1,392 write-in votes were cast.

A total of 85 write-in ballots in that race were deemed uncertified because the board of elections couldn’t determine the name that was written in, the wrong name was written in, they couldn’t determine voter intent, or voters had put down the name of someone, who hadn’t filed as a write-in candidate.

For instance, one ballot was cast for “Joe Dirt.” Another voted listed “anyone else” under the write-in name.

I don’t know if this is the all-time record for most write-in candidates ever running for office in Whitley County, but I would think that it would have to be close if it isn’t. I know it’s the most that I ever saw filed in a single year.

This isn’t to say that it is impossible for a write-in candidate to win an election in southeastern Kentucky. For instance, in 2006 McCreary County voters elected write-in candidate Gus Skinner as sheriff.

It is most definitely an uphill battle for a write-in candidate to win though.

The biggest issue that I think a write-in candidate would have to win the General Election is trying to overcome the “straight lever” vote. On the real old election machines, there used to be a lever that voters could pull to cast all their ballots for either all the Republicans or all the Democrats running for office on the ballot.

Today, there is still a box that you can mark on your ballot, which does the same thing and people still use it.

This automatically gives the Republican nominee in any race a large chunk of votes.

If you’re a write-in candidate, another big hurdle you have is that voters have to remember to vote for you when they go to the polls and then they have to figure out how to do so once they get there.

To my knowledge, no write-in candidate has ever been elected in Whitley County history. I know that there has never been a write-in candidate elected in the last 30 years.

If a write-in candidate is ever going to get elected in Whitley County, then I suspect it might very well be this year though.

Incumbent Third-District Constable Jim Thornton, who finished a competitive third in May Primary election for sheriff, recently filed to run as a write-in candidate for Third-District Constable in next month’s race. He faces Republican nominee Jordan Davis.

Thornton is a very good politician and has the advantage of being an incumbent, which is pretty much unheard of for a write-in candidate. This will be an interesting race to watch.

The other write-in candidates are Jim Walden and Harvey Alder, who are both running for sheriff against Republican nominee Bill Elliotte. As Walden and Alder have never run for office before, it’s impossible to gauge just how well they might do against Elliotte, who is a retired Kentucky State Police lieutenant and the Republican nominee.