April McCullum

Free Press Staff Writer

More than 18,000 Vermonters cast presidential votes for Bernie Sanders, despite his insistent appeals for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

The total of Sanders write-in votes — 18,183, or about 5.7 percent of Vermont's presidential votes — is greater than the combined tallies for third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, according to official results.

Vermont is one of 10 states and the District of Columbia where write-in votes are tallied for unregistered candidates, according to the Washington Post. Before the election some Sanders supporters wrote online essays theorizing that he could win the presidency with a sufficient number of write-in votes.

Other write-in favorites in Vermont included Republicans John Kasich (823 votes), Evan McMullin (629 votes) and Michael Pence (298 votes).

Clinton won Vermont's electoral votes with 55.7 percent of presidential ballots compared to Republican Donald Trump's 29.8 percent.

Voter registration in Vermont reached a record 471,619, according to the Vermont Secretary of State's Office. About 68 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the general election.

This article was first published online Nov. 15, 2016.

Contact April McCullum at 802-660-1863 or amccullum@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @April_McCullum.

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