REGION — Election season is under way in our area, and while it is not entirely uncommon for write-in candidates to enter the race, it seems worth mentioning that two people are doing just that in this election. They are Shirley Masuo, running for supervisor in Shohola, and Klu Padu, running for council in Town of Tusten.

The policy of writing in a candidate is almost totally confined to the United States. Locally, this year legislator Gene Benson won the Democratic line on the ballot because supporters wrote in his name.

It is certainly more common for write-in candidates to win in local elections, as opposed to state or national. However there have been noteworthy write-ins in larger elections. For instance, in 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the Democratic New Jersey presidential primary with 34,278 write-ins. In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower won the Republican Massachusetts presidential primary with 254,898 write-ins.

Julia Allen of Readington, New Jersey won a write-in campaign in the November 2005 elections for the township committee, after a candidate accused of corruption had won the primary. John R. Brinkley ran as a write-in candidate for governor of Kansas in 1930. He was motivated at least in part by the state’s revocation of his medical license and attempts to shut down his clinic, where he performed alternative medical procedures.

These examples show that serious contenders can be voted into office. But in the 2012 presidential election, some write-ins were not so serious: Leslie Knope (fictional character from the TV show “Parks and Recreation,” Chuck Norris, and Mickey Mouse (who has been the most popular write-in candidate) were written in. Other popular options are “me” or anti-government messages.

Then, of course, there’s the unusual. Michael Sessions, an 18-year-old high school senior, won as a write-in candidate for Mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan in 2005. He was too young to qualify for the ballot. In the 1997 election for Mayor of Talkeetna, AK, Stubbs the Cat won over the two human candidates. He has been re-elected every mayoral election since, and as of July 18, 2012, celebrates 15 years in office.