Didn’t like your presidential choices? You weren’t alone

In a year when the “lesser of two evils” argument was invoked in the presidential race more than ever before, nearly 100 Putnam County voters did some outside-the-box thinking and pulled the lever for a candidate not on the ballot.

The three candidates on the Indiana ballot — Republican Donald Trump, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Libertarian Gary Johnson — just weren’t enough for some Putnam County voters, who instead opted to use the write-in option to cast their votes.

The write-in votes cast in Putnam County ranged from the ludicrous (one vote for performance artist and zombie apocalypse awareness advocate Vermin Supreme) to the holy (five votes for Jesus) to the serious serious (20 votes for Green Party candidate Jill Stein).

Among the funny choices, none collected more than one vote. The selections include Vermin Supreme, Bob and Tom political character Doug Ladouche, Mill Murray (likely a touch-screen mishap for comedian Bill Murray) and actor Tom Hanks.

Among the protest votes, none ring out more than the five votes for Jesus, although local pastor and businessman Bobby Hopper also garnered a single vote.

By far, though, most of the votes were cast for other polticians. Aside from the three candidates on the ballot, there were 15 others officially accepted by the State of Indiana as write-in candidates. Four of these received votes in Putnam County — 20 for Stein, nine for Constitution Party candidate Darrell Castle, five for independent Tom Hoefling and one for independent Melissa Kelly.

Among politicians whose votes did not officially count, Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders received 20 votes, conservative independent candidate (although not in Indiana) Evan McMullin received 12, Ohio Gov. John Kasich received four, while Sen. Ted Cruz and Indiana governor and Vice President-elect Mike Pence each received two.

Politicians receiving one vote each included Sen. Marco Rubio, retired Congressman Ron Paul, former Indiana governor and current Purdue President Mitch Daniels, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain and Congressman Paul Ryan.

Other people receiving one vote each included Donald Smith, David Van Sickle, Jared Garrison, Greg Kosobud, Tony Trout and Wendell Ratcliff.

In one other item of some local interest, one-time North Putnam baseball coach Phil Webster, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for Indiana Senate District 35, received a single write-in vote for U.S. Senate in Putnam County.