Of mice and Marx: Write-in voters think outside the ballot box

One Philadelphia voter wanted Mickey Mouse on City Council, while another supported the rodent's longtime sweetheart, Minnie, for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Daffy Duck also got a nod for Council, along with Bozo the Clown.

And Philly Jesus won votes for Council and Municipal Court judge.

Philadelphia voters cast ballots for 41 electoral contests in last week's primary election. And 1,296 of them, unimpressed with their options, opted to write in candidates not on the ballot.

Some wrote in votes for people unable to serve - the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall for Commonwealth Court, the equally late Karl Marx for Council.

Others seemed unlikely to heed the call for civic service: former 76er Allen Iverson for sheriff?

Board of Elections staffers painstakingly recorded each write-in vote.

Nearly 100 were listed as "void," signaling that the voter etched in a curse instead of a candidate.

Still, one voter in Port Richmond slipped "[Expletive] Pay-to-Play" by as a write-in vote for register of wills. That same voter apparently wrote in "Abolish This Office" for sheriff.

Chris Sawyer, the Republican nominee for sheriff, ran unopposed for his party's nomination, gaining 11,533 votes. An additional 203 voters wrote in Sawyer's name on the Democratic side for sheriff.

Sawyer, an anti-blight activist who runs the website Philadelinquency.com, said just a few Facebook posts spread like wildfire and gained him support from disaffected Democrats.

"We live in a one-party town, so there's a lot of people who think everything gets decided in the spring," Sawyer said of the primary ballot and the Democrats' 7-1 voter-registration advantage in the city.

Sheriff Jewell Williams, seeking a second term, received 134,071 votes in the primary. Sawyer noted that more than 1,000 voters cast ballots for another Democrat even though his name had been removed from the ballot.

At least nine voters chose to vote for themselves for several offices in the primary election.

Paul Hazen, 33, is a registered Democrat but considers himself more of a socialist or Marxist.

Hazen, who runs a residency program for a local medical school, was happy to hear that Marx got a vote, adding that he would also vote for Iverson.

"It was borne of frustration with both parties," he said of his write-in votes.

Mark Person, 58, wrote himself in for seven offices. The former producer of Mary Mason's show on WHAT-AM votes for himself when he doesn't like his choice of candidates.

"I'm determined to see if people pay attention," he said. "Because people go in [polling places] like cattle, man."