Actually, I didn't see any inherent disrespect for the democratic process at all. The fact that these people showed up to vote in the primary is, in itself, evidence of their civic involvement.

The sheer number of write-ins that clearly weren't serious puzzled me at first. Assuming nobody lowered the voting age to 8 while I wasn't looking, why would so many people go through the trouble of showing up at polling stations just to cast a vote for Foghorn Leghorn?

But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense -- especially once I started looking at party registration.

For the presidential race, most of the write-ins were from Republicans. Since their party's candidate for president was basically decided by the April primary, I assume that most of them were there to vote in other races, such as state representative or state senator.

Since they were at the polls anyway, why not cast a presidential vote for Quickdraw McGraw? He's probably a gun rights supporter.

For Democrats, it was the exact opposite. Very few of them went the facetious route for the presidential race, where Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were still in hot competition. But for statehouse races, where a number of Republicans ran unopposed, they had a field day.

From that perspective, it was pretty interesting to see what people wrote.

Many chose real-life celebrities, such as Brad Pitt, Chuck Berry and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Others chose political figures, living or dead, whom they presumably wished were running, such as Colin Powell, Dennis Kucinich, Condoleeza Rice, John Edwards and Ronald Reagan.

Some went with political commentators. I saw plenty of votes for Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, John Stewart and Steven Colbert.

Some were amusing: "Moe Syslak," "George Costanza."

Some were vulgar: Use your imagination.

And some were just disturbing: "Adolf Hitler."

I found one subcategory oddly poignant. It basically consisted of two- or three-word editorials. "No Pay Raise." "Stop the War." "Time for Change." "Someone Else Please."

I found them poignant because they had a certain message-in-a-bottle quality. Who did the voters think would see these messages? Party officials? An office worker in the Pennsylvania Department of State? A newspaper reporter who's got nothing better to do with his afternoon?

I assume they took the trouble of writing those words in the hopes that somehow, even in a small way, they could express their opinion and someone would read it.

Casting a vote in the hope that somehow, somewhere, your opinion will matter. I guess when you get down to it, that's what democracy is about.