Essex County Sees Thousands Of Write-In Votes For 2024 Election
ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Nikki Haley. Mitt Romney. Cornel West. Hillary Clinton. Elon Musk. Mike Tyson. These are some of the people that Essex County residents voted for this year as "write-in" candidates during the 2024 general election.
With a presidential matchup between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on the cards, Essex County residents put in a heavy showing at the polls this year. There were 315,739 votes cast out of 590,268 registered voters, according to certified results from the Essex County Clerk's Office: a whopping 53.49 percent turnout rate.
Election Day was the most popular balloting method, with 177,387 voters turning out the polls on Nov. 5. However, early voting (76,016) and mail-in voting (49,357) also turned out to be popular options in Essex County. Other voting groups included provisional (11,530), federal (1,324) and emergency (125).
There were also more than 3,600 write-in votes – and that's where things tended to get a little silly.
Every now and then, write-in candidates launch legitimate election campaigns, such as Bill Rutherford, who earned nearly 800 votes for his re-election bid in West Orange this year. However, the vast majority of write-ins are cast to show displeasure with any of the choices on the ballot – a low-key form of protest.
It's rarely enough to make a difference in a race. But every now and then, it happens.
In 2019, the margin of victory in Verona's town council election was a mere two votes. Despite having five candidates to choose for two available seats, 28 of the 4,562 ballots cast in the election were for write-in choices – including Jerry Garcia and Arya Stark. Read More: Joke Write-In Votes Could Have Changed Council Election In This NJ Town
No election could have been swayed by write-in votes this year in Essex County, according to the final report from the clerk's office.
U.S. PRESIDENT
The race for U.S. president saw 672 write-in votes out of 313,955, with several nationally known politicians getting nominations in Essex County.
The list of Democrats who got votes for president included Josh Shapiro (12), "Richie Torres" (12) – likely a misspelling of Ritchie Torres – Hillary Clinton (9), Joe Biden (5), Jimmy Carter (2), Pete Buttigieg (2), Mark Kelly (2) and an apparent vote for former U.S. president "Barak Oboma."
The list of Republican write-in votes included Nikki Haley (161), Mitt Romney (33), Ron DeSantis (14), Chris Christie (12), Liz Cheney (11), Condoleezza Rice (6), John Kasich (6), Mike Pence (5), Tulsi Gabbard (5) and Paul Ryan (5).
Other well-known political figures that netted write-in votes in Essex County included Cornel West (70), Peter Sonski (12), Bernie Sanders (8), Michael Bloomberg (8), Ron Paul (3), Andrew Yang (2) and Abraham Lincoln (1).
Shiva Ayyadurai – a scientist and Livingston High School Hall of Famer who holds the first U.S. copyright for "email" – saw seven write-in votes for two different spellings of his name. Ayyadurai filed to run as an independent candidate for president in several states, including New Jersey. After the New Jersey Democratic State Committee challenged Ayyadurai's attempt to get on the ballot – he was born in India and is a naturalized citizen – Secretary of State Tahesha Way eventually removed Ayyadurai from the ballot after a judge deemed him ineligible. He appeared on the 2024 presidential ballot in several other states .
Politicians weren't the only people who saw write-in votes in Essex County. Other votes were cast for celebrities and entertainers such as Kanye West (3), Mark Cuban (2), Derek Jeter (1), Jesse Ventura (1), Joe Rogan (1), Steve Martin (1), LeBron James (1), Jerry "The King" Lawler (1), Billy Joel (1), Elon Musk (1), Stephen Curry (1), Alice Cooper (1), and a single vote for "Shohie Ohtari" – possibly a misspelling of baseball star Shohei Ohtani.
LOCAL RACES
The presidential election wasn't the only contest that attracted write-in votes in Essex County this year.
The race for U.S. Senate – where Andy Kim has been declared the winner – got 68 write-ins from Essex County. The list included several candidates who withdrew or were defeated in the primary election, including Lawrence Hamm (5), Tammy Murphy (2), Patricia Campos-Medina (1) and a single vote for one name: "Menendez."
Other write-in votes included:
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