Elections are a vital part of being a citizen in the United States of America.

Your vote, while it may seem meaningless sometimes, combines with those of fellow citizens to make the Constitutional Republic work. 

Of course, for some people with quite the sense of humor, elections can be a chance for a little fun as well. 

While most people who wrote down write-in candidates did it as part of a strategy to actually try and elect candidates — one that didn’t work but did make some waves — some people inevitably wrote down Mickey Mouse. 

The Disney character has likely been written in for most offices in the country, but this year there were plenty more suggestions besides the classic mouse and Minnie. 

Some people apparently chose to do it the hard way, writing down the name of the candidate as opposed to simply filling in the bubble. Others figured since a candidate had lost one race in the primary, they might like another spot in the general, such as Brent Bien, Gov. Mark Gordon’s Republican primary opponent, being selected for U.S. Representative. 

Someone also voted for Yoda, the diminutive Jedi from the Star Wars saga, for that position as well. 

Some people used the write-in vote to express their opinion rather than choose a specific person. In HD 24, there were votes for “anyone but,” anybody else” and “any one but GOP,” among others.

HD 25 saw votes for “anyone else but,” “no thanks” and “no viable candidate.”

People also attempted to bring in former heavyweights of the political world, including the late president Ronald Reagan and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. One voter even wrote ”The Pope!” with an exclamation point for emphasis, although one would think invoking the leader of the Catholic Church in a state House race would be emphasis enough. (Jesus Christ also received a vote in SD 19.)

County commissioner may have been the most interesting as many people voted for actual locals, whether themselves, a friend they thought would be a good commissioner, or a friend as a joke. Tim Lasseter, a primary county clerk candidate and official Cody school board fall write-in candidate, popped up multiple times on many other races — as did HD 24 primary candidate Nina Webber. Lasseter picked up six votes for county commissioner, one more than Park County Democratic Party chair Jan Kliewer, who received five. Boone Tidwell, who helped spearhead the push for hand counting ballots, received four. That was double Mickey Mouse, who received the same amount as Cody police officer Jason Potter and former Cody city councilmen Stanley Wolz and Bryan Edwards. Donald Duck only received one vote for commissioner, alongside a host of other locals (Joni Bennett, who won a Powell Valley Hospital board seat) and not-so-local (former presidential candidate Rand Paul). 

These votes may not have moved the needle, but they were nonetheless votes. The Constitution, after all, makes no mention of a requirement that people vote for someone who has a reasonable chance to win.  And, this election did show the power of the write-in votes, as primary gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien and outgoing superintendent of public instruction Brian Schroeder both received more than 1,000 votes in Park County. 

Who knows, maybe someday Dan Laursen’s trashcan (yes, an actual SD 19 write-in selection) will secure the votes necessary to win an election around here?