The Independent View: New Optical Scanner Voting Machines in NY Leads to Increase in Write-in Votes

Two candidates who weren't even on the ballot are apparent winners of two seats in NY's Chemung County Town of Baldwin.

Several Steuben County races could also be decided by write-in votes. And one Schuyler County race was won by a write-in candidate.

This sudden increase in successful write-in candidates isn't a fluke, election officials say.

New optical scan voting machines that were put into use in recent years make it easier for residents to write in a name, rather than just automatically pull the lever for someone whose name appears on the ballot in front of them.

"This is the first time in my life I've ever seen write-ins win," said Mary O'Dell, Chemung County deputy election commissioner. "It's so much easier to do write-ins with these new ballots. It's right there in front of you. There will start being more write-ins."

The change was apparent in the Town of Baldwin, where there was only one candidate on the ballot for two available Town Board seats. And that candidate, Gerald Tillotson, didn't even win. Tillotson captured 67 votes, but 280 write-in votes were cast. As soon as election officials saw the large number of write-ins, they decided to count them Tuesday night, O'Dell said. The result: Patrick Collins collected 149 write-in votes and Herschel Rohde had 141. That made them the apparent winners of the two seats. The same thing happened in the Baldwin town supervisor race, where Russell Purvis was running apparently unopposed. But Purvis grabbed only 70 votes, while write-in candidate Keith Rosekrans collected 124.

Write-in votes could play a role in several unsettled Steuben County races as well, according to Election Commissioner Veronica Olin. "We got some with the Jasper highway department. It's an issue there. There were 133 votes for the top vote-getter in Jasper, but there were 155 write-ins," Olin said. "There's a position on the Cameron Town Board that came close. We had 95 votes and 87 write-ins. We don't know if they are all for the same person or not. It's the same for the superintendent of highways in Cameron. If the write-ins are all for same person, the write-in would take the superintendent race in Cameron. "It looks like we definitely had more write-ins on the ballot than we normally do," she said. "The new ballot definitely leaves it open, because it's right there in black and white to do it. On the lever machines, people didn't understand how to do a write-in." Steuben County won't count all the write-in votes until Nov. 21, when it will also count absentee and military ballots, Olin said.

In Schuyler County, Tyrone town supervisor candidate Alan Hurley grabbed 121 votes, but there are 256 write-in votes. In that case, it appeared to be an organized write-in campaign mounted by other candidates, said Deputy Election Commissioner Carolyn Elkins. There were signs for at least three different Tyrone write-in candidates posted prior to the election, Elkins said. Election commissioners are expected to open those ballots Thursday.

With the large number of NY independent voters, over 2 million, there is the opportunity for write-in campaigns.