Sanders was top choice on write-in ballots

More than a thousand voters in Kitsap County were still “feeling the Bern” in November.

Elections officials in Kitsap County, and in the Washington Office of the Secretary of State’s Elections Division, have finalized the counting of write-in votes from the 2016 General Election.

All told, a total of 107,805 voters in Washington state didn’t like their choices on the presidential ballot and wrote in someone else.

The number of write-ins comprised 3.25 percent of the total vote.

Seven pairs of presidential candidates appeared on the November ballot.

The Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine finished with 52.54 percent of the vote, or 1.7 million votes.

Donald J. Trump and Micheal R. Pence, on the Republican ticket, finished with 1.2 million votes and 36.8 percent of the ballot.

The other five presidential choices on the ballot, and totals:

• Alyson Kennedy/Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party: 4,307 votes (0.13 percent);

• Gloria Estela La Riva/Eugene Puryear, Socialism & Liberation Party: 3,523 votes (0.11 percent);

• Jill Stein/Ajamu Baraka, Green Party: 58,417 votes (1.76 percent);

• Darrell L. Castle/Scott N. Bradley, Constitution Party: 17,623 votes (0.53 percent); and

• Gary Johnson/Bill Weld, Libertarian Party: 160,879 votes (4.85 percent).

A total of 3.3 million voters in Washington cast ballots in the November 2016 Election.

In Kitsap County, a total of 130,503 votes were cast.

With 166,501 voters eligible to cast ballots, the November election finished with a turnout of 78.4 percent.

The number of write-ins in Kitsap County was slightly higher than the statewide percent; 3.4 percent.

In Kitsap, a total of 4,453 voters wrote in a candidate not represented as the official choice by the seven political parties on the ballot.

Bernie Sanders, the independent U.S. Senator from Vermont, received the most write-in votes in Kitsap. He finished with 1,338 votes.

In second was Evan McMullin, the independent candidate from Utah, with 1,100 votes.

Republican Governor John Kasich of Ohio finished third among write-ins, with 172 votes.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, a Republican in the U.S. House from Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, was fourth with 168 votes.

Dori Monson, the conservative host of a radio talk show in Seattle, was fifth with 130 votes.

And in sixth, Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence — also the vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket — picked up 102 write-in votes in Kitsap County.

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