Write-In Votes For President Up In Maryland From 2012

BALTIMORE (AP) — State election data shows that the number of Maryland voters who wrote in their own candidate for president this year increased substantially compared to 2012.

The Baltimore Sun reports (http://bsun.md/2fuxrYB ) that about 32,000 Maryland voters wrote in a candidate for president this year. That's up from 10,309 voters in 2012 when President Barack Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney.

Pre-election polls showed that both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton had low approval ratings among voters.

If voters wrote in the name of someone other than the 53 candidates who registered as write-in candidates, it had the same effect as not voting at all. Ballots cast for non-registered write-in candidates are compiled as vote for "other" candidates and aren't individually tallied.

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Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com