Who? Write-in votes ruffle Saugus town clerk

SAUGUS – Barack Obama, Scott Brown and Richard Tisei may have topped the ballots in Saugus last week, but some voters just weren’t satisfied with any of the candidates.Town Clerk Joanne Rappa reported write-in votes for everyone from Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse to Hulk Hogan and Howard Stern all showed up as the clerk’s office has spent the last two weeks tallying votes from the Nov. 6 election.”Some people write in for themselves,” said Rappa. “There are two guys who, every election, they vote for themselves. We had one last year where the name was Ben Dover.”Rappa said a relative even once wrote in members of her own family during a past election.”He thought it was funny,” said Rappa. “When I figured out who it was he said, ‘I thought it was a secret ballot,’ and I said, not when you put my whole family down in one precinct. I can figure it out, I’m not an idiot.”Other names that appeared last week include Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, real estate mogul Donald Trump, reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian (sorry Kim) and even MAD Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman.”They don’t understand how much work it is for me,” said Rappa. “They think it’s funny. If they don’t like a candidate, or they’re not strong on a candidate they just put somebody else. At the end of the night, the poll workers make a pile of all the write-in ballots and the clerks have to pull aside all the write-in ballots and have to make a list of them all.”Rappa said names like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are counted as blanks.Aside from Big Bird and Billy the Kid, some people didn’t think anyone was qualified and wrote in names like “Any Body,” “None of the Above,” “Me” and “Anyone Else.”Some big-name politicians also made the list as well, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whom Rappa said received “three or four votes,” and former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.”I guess they just want to have fun with it,” said Rappa.But while Rappa said the write-ins make for some extra work, she said she was thrilled with the turnout last week with 13,815 heading to the polls out of 18,024 registered voters, or 76.6 percent.”That’s the highest that we’ve ever had in Saugus,” said Rappa. “It was a good turnout. Almost 1,000 to the number more than the last presidential election.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].