Santa, Mamdani & Poopypants: See write-in votes from Myrtle Beach and nearby areas

Voters around Horry County cast ballots for Baba Booey, Jesus and Mickey Mouse in the 2025 municipal elections.

The Horry County Board of Voter Registration and Elections tallied results for the Conway City Council, Loris City Council, Surfside Beach Town Council, Myrtle Beach City Council and Myrtle Beach mayoral races. Voters submitted nearly 170 write-in ballots in those municipal races, but no write-in candidate received enough votes to impact the election results.

“The write in totals were added in the vote count but we do not have to list them unless they get more than 25,” Horry County Board of Voter Registration and Elections Director Sandy Martin explained in an email.

The more outlandish names for Myrtle Beach City Council included Santa, Baba Booey and Zohan Mamdani — an apparent misspelling of the New York City mayor-elect.

Mamdani wasn’t the only nationally-known politician to make local ballots. One Conway voter wrote in Barack Obama for city council. Other notable Conway City Council write-in votes included one ballot for Jesus, another for “Not A Republican” and a slew of votes for cartoon characters. Daffy Duck and Donald Duck secured a vote each, and Mickey Mouse received two.

Loris City Council had its share of unusual contenders, as well. Two ballots seemed to follow an avian theme, Eagle and the punny Cluck Norris. Another voter went lower brow, with Siegfried Poopypants.

In Surfside Beach’s town council election, less than a dozen people wrote in votes, but someone still submitted an unusual name, Hooch And Lil One.

For some, it seemed no candidate would be best, literally. One ballot just had a small mark next to the line, but the remaining write-in votes all had lettering. For Myrtle Beach City Council, one voter wrote in No Vote, another penned Noone and two put Noon.

Several candidates listed on the ballot were written, though some were listed for other races. According to Martin, write-in votes for candidates on the ballot were not added into vote counts.

Surfside Beach Town Council candidate LaVerne Kreklau received 14.27% of votes and also garnered one write-in ballot.

Mayoral Candidate Mark McBride, who gathered 15.76% of the vote, had one write-in mayoral vote. In addition to the 5.71% of council votes candidate Doug Kelly received, he got one write-in vote for mayor. One voter wrote in Bethune — the last name of current Mayor Brenda Bethune — for a council vote.

Terrance Butler, who received 7.16% of the council vote, was the only official candidate to receive multiple write-in votes. Three voters wrote in Butler’s name, and another submitted a seeming misspelling of his name, “Terrece Butler.”

Take a look at the other write-in votes below.

The Myrtle Beach mayoral write-in ballots included:

• Jonathon Coates
• Marie Forrestal
• Andy Gramm
• Gloria Kasler
• Doug Kelly
• John Krajc
• Zohan Mamdani
• James Marshall (two votes) 
• Mark McBride
• Sean Pierce
• Olajumoke Oduwole

Myrtle Beach City Council write-in votes included:

• Dale Abraham
• Richard Arroyo
• Bahar (two votes)
• Stewart Bahar
• Stuart Bahar
• Genesis Barrone
• Bethune
• Steve Bianchi
• Jane Bohannon (two votes)
• Jane Bohnnon
• Baba Booey
• Genesis Bordney
• Claudia Bornholdt
• George Brett
• Terrance Butler (three votes)
• Terrece Butler
• Price Charlot
• Jonathon Coates
• Kate Curran
• Burke Daniel
• Noah Daniel
• Randy Daniel
• Savanna Davies
• Domenic Dinatale
• Ann Dunham
• Lynette Dutton
• Jimmy Edwards
• Eddie Emielita
• Matthew Fisher
• Catherine Fleming
• GG
• Jason Hawa
• James Hinkle
• HLP
• Joshua Hunt
• Victor Janisch
• JG
• K (two votes)
• Steve Kahn
• John Krajc
• John Krajtch
• Cherry Lehman
• Deborah Leibman
• Mike Looney (three votes)
• Israel Lopez
• Dan Martin
• Jake Masters
• James Marshall (four votes)
• Keith McMillan
• MM
• John Molloy (three votes)
• Noon (two votes)
• Noone
• Alfredo Obando
• Brian Palmer
• David Pearce
• Elaine Plummer
• Steve Pruett
• Dave Robrts
• Jason Rogers
• Robin Edwards Russell
• Santa
• Walter Showers
• Gregg Smith (two votes)
• Joy Stack
• Larry Stack (two votes)
• Suzanne Thorpe
• Tom Thorpe
• John Vincent
• No Vote
• James Wagner
• Mike Wagner
• Sandy Wagner
• Randl Wallace
• Mike Wannemacher
• Mmom
• Bobby Wilkes
• Betty Jones Wilson

The Conway City Council write-in ballots included:

• Tom Anderson (two votes)
• Anna Barnhill
• Shane Beamer
• Beth Calhoun
• Ken Calhoun
• David Cooper
• William Custer (two votes)
• Tom Davis
• Daffy Duck
• Donald Duck
• Tobias Forge
• Larry Fullwood (two votes)
• Danny Hardee
• William Hedgepath
• Shane Hubbard
• Jesus
• Howard Louis
• Lizzie Marlowe
• Scott McClain
• Tommy Moore
• Mickey Mouse (two votes)
• Algred E Newman
• Barack Obama 
• Ron Phillips (two votes)
• Harold D. Phillips Jr.
• Not A Republican
• Seth Rose
• Christian Anne Sayre
• Scott Sayre
• Dawn Staley
• John Vincent
• Tim Wilson

Write-in votes for Loris City Council included:

• Richard Dew (two votes)
• Ricky Dew
• Eagle
• Jonathan Hardee
• Todd Harrelson
• Russell Herring
• Bernard Murray
• Cluck Norris
• Siegfried Poopypants

The Surfside Beach Town Council write-in ballots included:

• Charles Allen
• Anousha
• John Bacot Jr.
• John Covrt
• Raymond Horoho
• William Joynes
• LaVerne Kreklau
• Bernard Murray
• Hooch And Lil One
• Dan Schollin
• Jesse Scott