1600 People Voted for Non-Candidate

My local elections distressed me: two people I know and like were running for the same position.

Fortunately for me, one of them solved my dilemma by dropping out of the race. It was too late for his name to be excised from the ballot. I knew that he was not running, but I was surprised to see no notification at the polls.

"Norman's not running," I chatted with a poll worker. She was aware of that. "Can't they at least cross off his name with a china marker?" (Our ballots are touch screens.) She suggested I call the county clerk. I didn't. I figured that if I knew that Norman had dropped out, most other people did, too.

After all, I am not a politico. I try to follow the issues, but people who really get them leave me in the dust. Still, I read in the Star-Ledger yesterday that more than 1600 people cast their votes for Norman.

Potential reasons that people may not have been aware that they were voting for a non-candidate
1) of course, Norman had no incentive to inform voters of his changed status after he dropped out
2) loyal voters may just have voted along party lines
2) voters may have been concentrating on the state and federal elections, and may have been figuring that local elections were not important enough to follow

If they don't keep up with local politics, they may just think that their candidate was defeated, instead of understanding that they wasted their ballot.

I bet Norman is kicking himself right now.