Ack! Bill the Cat to demand a recount

Bill the Cat, a two-time Radical Meadow Party nominee for president, received at least one vote in the Ohio 2nd Congressional District Tuesday.





















Even with voting systems that electronically scan and count every ballot without human eyes ever having to look at them, some votes can only be counted by hand.

They're the write-in votes, and they were counted early this morning. The highest-profile race with write-ins was the 2nd Congressional District, so that the final, unofficial results actually look like this:

Schmidt, Jean	Republican	115,817	50.58%
Wulsin, Victoria	Democratic	112,952	49.32%
Noy, Nathan	Write-in	179	0.08%
Condit, James J	Write-in	49	0.02%

But those also-rans don't even include the dozens of didn't-runs who did not register as write-in candidates, but nonetheless received some measure of support from voters looking for an alternative to the Wulsin-Schmidt duopoly.

They included more than a few votes for former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, plus Mickey Mouse, Bill Cunningham, Mike McConnell, Bill the Cat, Tom Brinkman Jr. and John Murtha.

And then there were some voters who apparently thought it was an essay question, and tried to use the tiny write-in space as a federal government suggestion box. Suffice it to say that elections staffers who have been working for 18 hours straight don't have the inclination or the legal authority to tally up those answers.