Rhode Island : Presidential Write ins

At he end of this post is the tally for all Presidential Write In votes in Rhode Island.

As you all probably know Rhode Island is teeny-tiny. It is also notoriously Democrat. That being said, we are a microcosm of what is happening in the country. Currently we are at the top of the list of states in regard to:
Recession teetering on Depression
Per Capita Homelessness
Job loss
People receiving Unemployment
People receiving food stamps
businesses leaving
and of course the Real Estate Bubble burst here big time
(Heck the BBC did up a story on RI to illustrate how bad things are in the USA.)

Despite Rhode Island's economic short falls, it does take the Write In process very seriously. The Board of Elections is above board as far my compatriots and I are concerned. And for that I am quite grateful.

With that in mind I wanted to show you the Official list of write ins from Rhode Island. Our meetUp group #802 at its height had something like 163 members. I do think we made a herculean effort to educate our neighbors about Ron Paul despite not getting much support (otherwise read as "none") from the Official campaign. We are not a big place and on the grand scheme RI voters are not even a blip on the political radar.

It takes a lot of courage and pissed-off-edness to write someone in. (I was simultaneously surprised and not surprised by the #1 Write in.)

What I do think is significant is the total number of write ins this year. As I understand it, there were more write-ins this year than in recent history. People simply did not like the two choices. I would like to think that Rhode Island MeetUp 802 had everything to do with these Ron Paul write ins. And I would also like to think that our meetUp group influenced many more people who couldn't make themselves write someone in.

A write in must receive a minimum of 5 votes to be included on this list.

Hillary Clinton 655
Ron Paul 472
No Vote 43
Mike Huckabee 34
Mitt Romney 25
Al Gore 15
Colin Powell 14
Mickey Mouse 11
None of Above 11
Stephen Colbert 8
Jesus 7
Bill Clinton 6
Michael Bloomberg 6
Alan Keyes 5
Jessie Ventura 5
Joe The Plummer 5
Buddy Cianci 5
Dennis Kucinich 5

here were the general election results for comparison.
http://www.ri.gov/election/results/2008/general_election/