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I would like to commend the staff of the Bonner County Elections Office for doing a great job of handling a record turnout of voters (90 percent), accompanied by a high number of write-in candidates on Nov. 8.

Around the state, there were 37 candidates who registered as write-ins for president and one for sheriff. This slows down the ballot-counting process. But in Bonner County there were also three Soil and Water Conservation District commissioner positions, for which no one had filed, so the write-ins for them had to be decided entirely by hand-counting and hand-examining the ballots ­— and there were thousands.

Slowing down the process unnecessarily were voters who had chosen to write in names like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Satan, Anybody but (insert whatever name), and more.

Many volunteers worked along with the staff at the Elections Office well into the early morning hours and finished the job later that day. I was one of those volunteers, working past midnight. Walking into the room at 8 p.m. at the beginning of my shift, I was impressed by how organized and efficient things were in comparison with the 2014 general election. But still, when I left at 1 a.m. when the next shift arrived, there were 6,000 absentee ballots yet to be handled.

County Clerk Mike Rosedale and his great staff deserve our wholehearted appreciation for an overwhelming job well done.

ANITA PERRY

Sandpoint