Writing in a vote is generally an admission of futility. "Rather than vote for X or Y, I'll write in a vote for Mickey Mouse," one says. If there is only one name on a printed ballot for a particular post, that candidate, then, is generally regarded as a shoo-in. But like the propositions discussed by Sportin' Life in Porgy and Bess , it ain't necessarily so. (Sportin' Life is portrayed above, as performed by John W. Bubbles in 1935.) A write-in campaign was launched this year by the mayor of Buffalo, New York in order to retain the post of Mayor. It has established that, when the candidate is an incumbent, it can work. Byron Brown, a Democrat who has served four terms as mayor, lost the primary election in June to India Walton: a nurse, union activist, and socialist. The Republican Party did not offer any nominee. So the only candidate listed on the ballots when they were printed up in September was ... India Walton. What might have been seen as...