I think my fears may have come true. When I went to vote yesterday there was a problem. We have the new touch screens and they at first brought us the wrong cards. We stood in line for 1.5 hours give or take a few minutes until they got it straightened out.
When it was my turn to vote I asked where the write in canidates names where because I was under the impression that they would be near the machines. They were not but on the other side of the room and the people who where working there had not been asked this question but I was given a pen and some paper to write down the names I needed.
I went through all my voting and put in Robert Gemmill, II as my write in for US Senate. However, according to this site no one at all voted for him. This I find hard to believe as did he not vote for him self? Normally I wouldn’t have thought much, maybe I made a mistake in spelling his name, but I live in Montgomery County and there were no write ins at all. Does this mean that my vote has not been counted? The site says that they are 100% counted and has just been updated.
If this is the case that there was a problem with my vote, who do I goto? I am not about to let my votes not be counted.
Was he a validly registered write-in candidate? In some states, candidated have to be registered as valid write-ins by a special date. When poll workers tally write-ins, they only tally the names of those who were valid. It’s possible for numerous voters to write in candidates but the tallies to be “zero” because they all wrote Donald Duck or the names of non-valid candidates.
I’m not saying this is necessarily the case here, but it’s one possible explanation.
Mr. Gemmill, was an official write in. He was listed in the voting book they sent out a week or so before the election and was on the list of write ins by the front door. He is also listed, by name, on the page I listed above. I find it strange that there is not one vote for him, especially since I know I did.
In that case, I suggest you contact your local or county clerk.
In the primary, I faced the same situation–I know I wrote in a valid candidate, and I know I did it correctly. Yet my precinct reported “no write ins.” The local clerk was aware of the problem, but didn’t pursue it because she and the candidate agreed that the candidate would not have received enough votes to be put on the November ballot. I don’t know if it was a machine issue or a poll worker issue. In your case it would appear to be a poll worker issue, since there was no machine involved. I think it’s important for the clerk to know so that they can address this in future training.