“Google searches for 'write-in' are off the charts”

Americans have expressed deep objections about both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton throughout the course of the presidential race. This week, their distaste is showing up in their search behavior. Google Trends data indicates that the online searches for "write-in" surged over the last week by more than 2,800%, hitting a record high since 2004. The states with the highest rates of search are not battlegrounds, but Republican and Democratic strongholds (VT, NJ, DE, UT). Google Trends data don't show with any certainty what caused this trend. With less than a month to go until Election Day, it's not clear whether there will be continued high interest in write-in candidates or if searches will translate into action at the ballot box. According to data from the Federal Election Commission, write-in votes accounted for 0.11% of the vote in 2012, which doesn't sound like much, but was in fact the largest share in the last four presidential elections.

In Other News Still dripping wet from the neck-high floodwater that destroyed her home, Joni Gaddy shivered and wept as she recalled the alligators swimming outside her house. "I'm soaked. The water is up to your neck coming out of the house. The house is destroyed," she told CNN, clutching the dog she managed to save. "I don't know where my horses are. I have another dog stranded in the house." Gaddy had been trapped in her home in Lumberton, North Carolina, since Saturday. For three days she prayed someone would find her. "Helicopters were flying around my house. They didn't fly over me, and I had all kinds of signals," she said. "I put notes all over the house. I had sheets hanging out." She lived in horror as alligators and snakes infested the water outside her house. "I was hoping the alligators wouldn't come into the door," she said. Gaddy was finally rescued when her son drove from Texas and arrived on Tuesday. "My son and my nephew saved me -- walking through the water, climbing through trees, because there were trees down ... it's a mess.” Gaddy has lived in her house for 27 years. "It was the worst thing," she sobbed. "I don't wish that on anybody. I don't think I'll ever go back to that house."