Presidential candidate Kanye West posted this image to Twitter after voting in Cody on Nov. 3.

Courtesy photo

Kanye West’s status as a local resident doesn’t appear to have given him much of a boost at the ballot box.

In Park County, West picked up a total of 14 votes for president in last week’s election — including his own vote, a Tribune review of county write-in data found. That amounted to about 0.08% of the total ballots cast in the county, as the musician, entrepreneur and Cody property owner finished 12,799 votes behind President Donald Trump.

West was the most popular pick among the 115 people who opted to write in an alternative candidate, but not by a wide margin: U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2012, received 10 write-ins in Park County, the Tribune found.

The other write-in ballots were spread across an odd mix of other long shot candidates and people who didn’t actually run for president, ranging from former contenders to Trump cabinet members to unsuspecting local residents.

Only 115 people (0.69% of Park County voters) wrote in a candidate, down significantly from the 461 write-in votes were cast in 2016, which accounted for 3% of the vote.

Overall, “third party candidates did less well than in 2016 in terms of playing a spoiler role this year because people didn’t want to waste their vote,” Columbia University Professor Robert Y. Shapiro told Billboard. “They wanted to vote for Trump or [Joe] Biden, because this election was deemed very important.”

That trend appears to have held true locally.

In 2016, about 89% of voters cast their ballots for either Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Another 11% was split among third parties — with Libertarian Gary Johnson pulling in 4% — write-in candidates or blank or erroneous ballots. But this year, the major parties’ nominees captured 97% of the local vote. Biden received 875 more votes in Park County than Clinton, and Trump picked up 1,698 new supporters. Meanwhile, far fewer residents picked an alternative.

West and his running mate, Michelle Tidball of Cody, attempted to get on the ballot in Wyoming, but were unable to gather the needed 4,025 signatures by the state’s August deadline.

West spent nearly $10.4 million on his campaign through October, federal campaign finance reports show. However, neither the money nor his wide following translated into much support. Across the 12 states where West qualified for the ballot, he received around 64,100 votes, according to Sunday tallies from The Associated Press, earning no more than 0.4% of the vote in any state. (He did pick up some additional votes for vice president, because third-party candidate Rocky De La Fuente added the rapper as his running mate — apparently without West’s permission.)

The totals don’t include the write-ins West received around the country, as those hand-written votes are generally not tallied unless they affect the outcome of a race. The Tribune counted West’s votes from a spreadsheet generated by new voting equipment, which takes snapshots of each write-in vote.

Big names written in

The sheet shows West wasn’t the only celebrity to draw votes. Local residents also wrote in the names of country star George Strait, podcast hosts Adam Carolla and Joe Rogan, actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

A couple famous cartoon characters — Donald Duck and Princess Moana — also received one vote each in Park County. Then there was a ballot for Vermin Supreme — a performance artist and perennial candidate best known for wearing a boot on his head and promoting an absurdist platform. Over the years, Supreme has called for mandatory tooth brushing, zombie apocalypse preparedness and a free pony for every American.

A couple Park County residents simply wrote, “none of the above,” with one voting for “a new political system.”

Two residents voted for John Piper, an influential Christian theologian who said he wouldn’t be voting either Biden or Trump because “my allegiance to Jesus set me at odds with death — death by abortion and death by arrogance.” And two other local residents voted for Jesus himself.

More common among the presidential write-ins, however, were known names in politics. A handful of voters indicated that they would rather have current or former members of the Trump administration in the Oval Office, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson, Attorney General William Barr, former Secretary of Defense Gen. Jim Mattis and former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations Nikki Haley and John Bolton.

Then there was Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins (six votes), the Constitution Party’s Don Blankenship, former Democratic contenders Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang, and U.S. Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Ted Cruz of Texas, plus former Vice President Dick Cheney and former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson of Cody.

Local candidates

Some less prominent residents also pulled in some votes.

Jay McCarten, the principal of Cody’s Sunset Elementary School, picked up three write-in votes — proving as popular as former Democratic candidates Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders.

To his surprise, First Deputy Park County Clerk Hans Odde — who helped organize the local election — also got written in for president, as did Christy Fleming of Powell, who said she was penned in by a family member.

“When I was in high school, my goal was to be the first woman president,” Fleming explained. However, a trip to Russia through an exchange program — where she observed blackened rivers and other signs of pollution — reshaped her focus.

“I decided that I would rather work for the Park Service, because I didn’t want Wyoming to turn into that, and so I changed my career goals at that point,” Fleming said. “But every once in a while, it’s kind of a running family joke [of] someday I’m going to run for president.”

Of course, Fleming, who works at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, faces at least one gigantic obstacle to joining the race: As an employee of the federal government, “it’s illegal for me to campaign,” she noted with a laugh. And perhaps it’s for the best.

“It would be cool to be the first woman president, but I think that’s a lot more politics than I would like to play,” Fleming said.

Powell Tribune writer and photographer Mark Davis — or maybe someone sharing his name — also received unexpected support. With a single write-in vote, Davis did as well as actual candidates like Jade Simmons, a pianist and motivational speaker from Texas who ran as an independent.

But Davis said he would have liked to have beaten the local resident who got the most write-ins.

“Man, if I could only beat Kanye,” Davis mused, adding, “If he runs next election, I might try to get at least as many [votes] in Park County.”

Park County’s presidential results:

Republican Donald Trump — 12,813 — 76.6%

Democrat Joe Biden — 3,410 — 20.4%

Libertarian Jo Jorgensen — 282 — 1.7%

Independent Brock Pierce — 97 — 0.6%

Write-in votes — 115 — 0.7%

More than one candidate — 8 — 0.0%

Blank ballot — 90 — 0.5%