Somewhere in San Diego County is a voter who cast a ballot for a presidential candidate who says the government is covering up the truth of time travel and Mars colonization.
Seattle lawyer Andrew Basiago, a write-in hopeful for the Democratic nomination, has said: “I have prior knowledge that not only will I run for president, but that during one of the elections — which would have to be between 2016 and 2028, because I’m not running past that — I’m either elected president or vice president.”
According to results late Thursday from Michael Vu, San Diego County registrar of voters, Basiago was one of five Democrats and nine Republicans on the June primary ballot eligible as write-in candidates for president.
The 14 hopefuls drew only nine votes, according to final write-in tallies provided by Vu, who said: “We certified the election results this evening.”
The top vote-getter among county Democrats was Hillary Clinton with 215,655 votes. The No. 1 Republican was Donald Trump with 188,905 local votes.
The top write-in candidate?
Republican David P. Thomson tallied three votes in San Diego County. Little is posted about him.
But plenty of info is available on U.S. Senate candidate Billy Falling of Chula Vista, the only one of three write-in candidates to get votes in San Diego County. He had 66.
A Cherokee Indian with conservative Christian values, Falling posted his hopes on Facebook the day before the June 7 primary.
“By this time Wednesday, or possible Thursday, after the write-in ballots are hand-counted, California could have a new prospect for the U.S. Senate, namely, me,” he said.
“If the pastors of the 26,601 churches have done their jobs, and the Christians who oppose killing babies will write in my name, I will be celebrating a miracle victory.”
No miracle materialized. Democrat Kamala Harris was the top Senate vote-getter in San Diego County with 217,921 votes, topping a multiparty field of 34.
By far the most successful write-in candidate locally was Thomas E. Krouse — winning 376 votes in his race for state Assembly in the 76th District.
Republican incumbent Rocky Chavez, who had dropped out of the U.S. Senate race, ran unopposed on the regular ballot, winning 68,819 votes.
Krouse, also a Republican, is a financial analyst with an MBA from the University of Southern California. He also attended the local Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2003, according to ballotpedia.org.
No results were available for Democrat Katie Memmel of El Cajon, the 36-year-old SDSU graduate who ran as a write-in in the 50th Congressional District to challenge incumbent Rep. Duncan D. Hunter.
Early Friday, Registrar of Voters Vu said Memmel was not a qualified write-in candidate.
Hunter topped a five-man field in June with nearly 57 percent of the vote.
Final balloting showed 669,850 votes (including write-ins) were cast for president in San Diego County — among six political parties.
Vu says write-in votes for cartoon or historical characters, pets and whatnot are not counted or reported. So The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial urging Republicans vote for Ronald Reagan as a protest against Trump did not yield a count for the Gipper.
But for qualified write-ins, 460 votes were cast countywide in June.
