By ERIC MEYER

Staff writer

Write-in candidates up-ended ballot-listed candidates in three contested races and won several other contests for which no candidate had filed in this month’s election.

But the most interesting write-ins — including “Anyone But” — were not necessarily winners.

Former county commissioner Dan Holub received not only 51 votes from Gale Township and Marion South to finish fourth in the race for 4th District commissioner, won by David Crofoot.

He also received 3 write-ins for Marion City Council, 1 for Marion-Florence School Board, and 2 of 20 write-ins cast against unopposed 5th District commission candidate Jonah Gehring.

Trayce Warner, a ballot-listed candidate who finished third in the 4th District, also received 2 write-ins in the 5th.

Write-in Stan Conover, with 11 votes compared to Gehring’s 278, placed second in the 5th.

“Anyone But” also received a write-in in that race and in the race, won by uncontested incumbent Lou Thurston, for Hillsboro mayor.

“Anyone Else,” “Bugs Bunny,” and “No” also received write-ins for Hillsboro mayor.

“Anyone But” again received a write-in vote in the uncontested race won by Renee Gehring for Ward 1 council member in Hillsboro.

Janet Robinson and “Mickey Mouse” received write-in votes in the contested Florence mayoral election, in which Bill Harris beat Bob Gayle.

Mary Shipman ended up defeating Bev Baldwin by a single vote in Florence’s Ward 2 race, too close to call on election night, among ballot-listed candidates.

“Undecided” received one vote as did write-in Roger Hannaford in the race for Marion mayor. David Mayfield won the race by carrying Marion South while John Wheeler finished second by winning Marion North by a smaller margin.

Hannaford also received 2 write-ins for Marion City Council in which a total of 11 write-ins were cast, including 2 for unsuccessful mayoral candidate and council incumbent Wheeler.

“Spot the dog” was among 9 write-in votes against unopposed Peabody mayoral candidate Tom Spencer, who also received one of those write-ins.

“Blackie the cat,” “Ringo the dog,” and “Scat the cat” each received one of the 40 write-ins for Peabody City Council, where three candidates were unopposed on the printed ballot.

The leading write-in was Steve Rose with 25 votes. Winner and third-place finisher Alan Gillen had 70.

Among the few successful write-ins in a contested race was David Staatz, who won one of three Ramona City Council seats by defeating ballot-listed candidate Ben Calvert, 6 votes to 1.

Write-ins Steve Seifert with 11 votes and Brandy Hanson with 10 defeated ballot-listed candidates Jan Zinn, 4; Joseph Zinn, 3; and Joyce Buckland-Rohloff, 2, for the final two of five seats on the Lost Springs City Council.

Write-in Ryan Johnson, with 18 votes, defeated ballot-listed Roland Boesker, with 15 votes, for Burns mayor.

For Burns City Council, winners were write-in Jason Miller with 10 votes and the only ballot-listed candidate, Cecilia Kennedy, with 13. A total of 12 others, led by Judith Steward with 8, received write-ins.

In races in which no candidate was on the ballot, Tim Svoboda won as Tampa mayor with 16 of the 21 votes cast. He also may have been the choice on one additional, spelling-challenged voter, who cast a write-in for “Tim S.”

Write-ins Derek Belton, with 7 votes, and Ty Peterson, with 3, won the two city council seats there. Five other write-ins had 2 votes each, and five others had 1 vote each.

Write-in Michael Sorensen won the Durham mayoral race with 10 votes. Two other write-ins had 3 votes total.

Write-ins Larry Schafer and Larry Wedel, 11 each; Ronald Gene Duke, 10; Wendell Cook, 8; and Ed Flaming, 7, won the five council seats, but election officials apparently had trouble determining whether Wedel was qualified. Two other candidates received one vote apiece.

Write-ins Joe Vinduska with 17 votes, Leann Troutt with 15, and Tish Vinduska with 8 were victorious over 17 other write-ins for Lincolnville City Council. Conner Montgomery was next highest with 5.

Jerry Hanson outdistanced six other write-ins to win as Lost Springs mayor with 10 votes. The next highest vote-getter was Joseph Zinn with 4.

Write-in David Terrell won the Lehigh mayoral race with 10 votes. Two other write-ins received 1 each.

Write-ins Nick McLaughlin and Scott Schultz, 10 apiece, joined Glen George and Eldon Kaiser, 9 apiece, to win four of the five Lehigh City Council seats. Terrell, who presumably will take the mayoral post instead, tied with Jennifer Hegewood, 2 votes apiece, for the fifth seat.

Write-ins Jeff Bina with 11 votes and Anjanette Vinduska with 10 joined ballot-listed candidate Kathy Silhan with 15 votes in winning seats on the Pilsen improvement district.

In the race for an at-large seat on the Peabody-Burns School Board, the four ballot-listed candidates all won. However, a total of 17 write-in votes were spread among 12 individuals.

Duane Kirkpatrick, who had a successful write-in campaign to win the uncontested Position 3 on the Marion school board, received not only 112 write-ins (plus 4 more that listed only his last name) but also 10 more write-in votes for Position 1 and 2 more for Position 2.

A total of 65 write-ins for 61 other candidates were recorded in the Position 3 race. Among them were votes for “Donald Duck,” “None,” “Unknown,” and “Who Wants It.”

In all, 12 candidates received a total of 21 write-in votes for Position 1, won by ballot-listed candidate Javan Koehn, who had 854 votes.

Among the 13 write-ins opposed to ballot-listed Nick Kraus, who received 1,015 votes for Position 2, were 2 for “Mickey Mouse.”

Among the 16 write-ins opposed to ballot-listed Jeremiah Lange, who received 967 votes for Position 7, were “Anybody,” “Anybody but J. Lange,” “Big Bird,” “Elmer Fudd,” and the ever-popular “Mickey Mouse.”

Other write-in votes for which names of real candidates could not be identified were “Jim” for Tampa mayor, “Janis” for Peabody City Council, “Ashley” for Lincolnville City Council, and “Jerry” for 5th District commissioner.

A total of 177 additional names were written in on Marion County ballots Nov. 5.

In alphabetical order, they were:

Barry Allen, Thieen Antoszyk, David August, Michele August, Jason Backhus, Brad Bailey, Jim Baker, Dan Barnett, Aaron Barney, Dallas Bartel, Greg Berens, Michele Berens, Lynn Berns, Hannah Bourbon, Tom Britain, Marlin Buchholz, Ed Burnett, Bryan Castleberry, Megan Chizek, Sherry Conures, Jenny Craft, Harold Davis, Chelan Duerksen, Wanda Dush, Heather Echola.

Ryan Edmundson, Karon Egts, Marcy Ehrlich, Duke Eldridge, Jose Espinoza, Gary Ewert, Dwight Flaming, Marilyn Flaming, Cory Forth, Tiana Gaines, Jay Gfeller, Dylan Goebel, Cindy Goentzel, Ron Goodwin, Jeremy Gossen, Cameron Gottwald, Jeannette Goza, Byrant Gutsch, Alex Haines, Alysha Haines, Amy Hajek, Andrew Hajek, Donna Hajek, Michelle Hajek, Russ Hake, Mike Hammon.

Janie Hampton, Dennis Hancock, Jayson Hanschu, Heather Haskin, Mark Hatfield, Lori Heerey, Tim Hegewood, Scott Heidebrecht, David Hein, Gerald Henderson, Tobin Henson, Justin Hett, Ken Hoffman, Daniel Holbiet, Martin Holler, Terry Holtz, Rhea Huls, Lindsay Hutchison, Cynthia Jackson, Emily Jackson, Leah January, Terry Jones, Michael Jost, Barbara Kaiser.

Lester Kaiser, Russ Kerbs, Janet Killough, Monte Kimble, Ed Kinkaid, Bob Knapp, Kimberly Koop, Caleb Kristek, Gene Lanning, Ray Lindgren, William Lundy, Troy Madron Sr., Darvin Markley, Susan Marshall, Paul Martinez, Krista Matlock, Layla Mayer, Jami Mayfield, Duane McCarty, Stuart Meador, Lloyd Meier, Mary Margaret Metz, Amy Meyer, Dennie Moening.

Don Molleker, Jennifer Montgomery, Pat Moore, Paul Morrison, Candace Moss, Daniel Moss, Donald Mueller, Francie Mueller, Billy Needham, Kim Nellans, Darin Neufeld, Kari Newell, Ryan Newell, Maggie Nichols, Terry Nystrom, Ryan Olson, John Ottensmeier, LeAnne Pankratz, Sherry Pankratz, Bartholomew Peace, Christina Peterson, John Peterson, Tanner Peterson, Jane Pigorsch, Shayla Rahe, Michelle Regnier.

Susan Reid, Kenny Remmers, Rick Reynolds, Tom Richards, Jeffrey Richardson, Monte Root, Pete Rose, Harvey Sanders, Randy Savage, Rex Savage, James Schlehuber, Eileen Schmidt, Alison Schultz, Jim Scott, Kirk Seals, Angela Seifert, Heath Shields, Jake Sigel, Michael Sigel, Carole Sklenar, Zane Slater, Warren Smith, Jeff Soyez, Chris Sprowls, Heather Steiner.

Kelly Steiner, Matt Stiles, Michael Stinger, Amy Summervill, Damien Svitak, Houston Svoboda, Grant Theirolf, Patsy Troutt, Kendall Unrau, Dina Vogel, Elmer Voth, Janice Waner, Scott Weber, Louis Wegerer, John Wesner, Ed Wheeler, Morgan Wheeler, Gerald Wiens, Karen Williams, Steven Williams, Travis Wilson, Brandon Winter, Frank Woodruff, Janice Woodruff, Beka Wurm, Greg Wyatt, and Melissa Zieammermann.