I didn’t put this in 2010 U.S. Election because it involves a local primary election. The Mods can move it if appropriate.
Please ignore any knowledge of election results you may have as these scenarios may come up in the future and the answers will still be relevant.
FYI: Wisconsin has an open primary. You can only vote in one parties primary, but there is no party registration. Anyone in Wisconsin who says they are a “registered this” or “registered that” is either lying or ignorant.
In Milwaukee County (Wisconsin) Incumbent Sheriff David Clark is running for re-election on the Democratic ticket. He has challengers. There is a candidate running for Sheriff on the Republican ticket who has no challengers.
What if a majority of people voting in the Republican primary write in David Clark on the write in section of the Republican primary ballot? Will David Clark become the Republican candidate for Sheriff in Milwaukee County in November even though he is a Democrat?
What if this happens and Clark also wins his primary challenge on the Democratic primary. Will Clark be both the candidate on the Republican and Democratic ticket in November?
What if this happens and Clark loses his Democratic primary. Can he then run as a Republican even though he really isn’t a republican? ALSO:
There was no Republican candidate for Milwaukee County Clerk of Courts. If voting on the Republican primary ticket the only choice was to cast no vote for this office or write in a name. If everyone chose to not cast a vote for this office, but 1 person wrote their name in, would that one person become the Republican candidate in November, or would the other non-votes be considered “none of the above” and out number the one vote?
So far my searches for these answers have been unsuccessful.
The actual living person who gets the most write-in votes will win the election.
Blank votes, votes for “none of the above”, “Mickey Mouse”, etc. are all spoiled ballots, because they do not vote for a real living person who is eligible for the office. They are not counted at all.
We had this situation last election in Minneapolis. Nobody filed for one non-partisan office (Soil and Water Conservation Director District 3) so it was all write-in votes. The winner had about 125 votes, as I remember.
So the answer to your second question is clearly “no”, because one write-in would not be 5% of the previous gubernatorial vote. Note that parties write the law this way on purpose, because they don’t want their party nominations being won by joke candidates getting tiny numbers of votes.
Some states allow for the party establishment to make a nomination in a case where nobody runs in the primary, but I couldn’t find any such provision in Wisconsin law.
As for your first question, see Section 8.03:
So the successful Democratic candidate for sheriff could not simultaneously run as a Republican. However, it appears that an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination who received 5% of the previous gubernatorial vote as a write-in Republican, and who subsequently filed the requisite declaration of candidacy, could run as a Republican.