Nobody, however, claimed there was a problem of shortage of possibilities.

Perpetual contender Betsy DeVos finished third. Readers pointed out that the secretary of education was recently held in contempt of court for refusing to support students victimized by crooked for-profit schools. But the bottom line was that Donald Trump’s top education official doesn’t like public schools. End of story.

On the plus side, DeVos has always gotten a bit of a slide from those who argue she’s too incompetent to be a major threat. There are several cabineteers in that category. “I’ve been thinking that Ben Carson must be in the Witness Protection Program,” wrote a voter from Nashua, N.H., about our secretary of housing and urban development. “Really, has anyone seen him in the last several months?”

The last Worst winner, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, dropped down to the middle of the pack despite his heroic bid for attention by threatening to fire officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who had the temerity to reassure the public that Trump’s do-it-yourself weather map threatening Alabama with a hurricane was fictional.

“The meteorology thing was awesome,” wrote John Merrill.

Perhaps our respondents have decided that Ross, for all his awfulness, also is too inept to pose much trouble. Nearly three years into the job, “he appears to be perpetually stuck on Level One of the learning curve,” theorized John Evans.

Still, there were a few whimpers about lack of achievement by officials like Elaine Chao, secretary of transportation and wife of Mitch McConnell. “The secretary, who would have never gotten a cabinet job without her spouse, has made Infrastructure Week into a punch line,” wrote a voter who gets extra credit for bringing infrastructure into the conversation.

A number of people suggested a Worst shout-out to Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, plus acting White House chief of staff. (Mulvaney is also winner of Longest Title award.) You’ll remember that famous interview in which Mick announced that Trump wanted to host the G7 summit at his hotel because “he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business.”

Rick Perry may be departing as energy secretary, but he’ll be hard to forget. His role as one of “the three amigos,” federal officials allegedly charged with handling Ukraine, would be enough. But Perry voters also seemed bathed in nostalgia for ineptitudes past. “Who are the three amigos? If he says ‘me, Volker and oops,’ he’s my guy,” wrote LJR from South Bay.