Fistful of votes
One final piece of business from the Nov. 4 general election.
Blaine Taylor, a Towson resident, author and presidential candidate, received three votes, according to information available on the State Board of Elections Web site. Those votes came from Carroll, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, respectively.
Taylor insists that he voted and voted for himself. In an e-mail response to questions, Taylor added that someone else he knew said they also tossed their vote to the independent candidate.
But there’s a goose egg under Taylor’s name on the line that lists Baltimore County votes.
Katie Brown, director of the county Board of Elections confirmed Taylor did receive two votes that were tallied as part of the nearly 2,000 votes from the county listed as “other write-ins.” It’s the same category where votes for Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse and Cal Ripken Jr. are listed.
Brown said work is being done to have those votes correctly listed with Taylor’s name.
Upon hearing the revised totals, Taylor wrote, “Let’s look on the good side. I just almost doubled my vote”
Even with the two additional votes, a recount is not likely.
President-elect Barack Obama recieved more than 214,000 Baltimore County votes and more than 1.6 million votes statewide. Republican Sen. John McCain received more than 158,000 votes in the county and more than 957,000 votes statewide.
Taylor said if the final vote total “is the actual number, then I have to weigh that against running that way again for future offices as opposed to being the nominee of one of the independent parties, or dropping out altogether. I won’t do the latter.”