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---
title: The Weirdest Moments of Election Day 2014
description: What other night would have Jack Sparrow, Kanye West and a Mitch McConnell photobomb?
canonical: https://time.com/3557765/quirky-election-day/
author: Tessa Berenson
article:opinion: false
article:content_tier: free
article:published_time: 2014-11-05T03:35:02.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:10.334Z
article:section: Politics
og:title: The Weirdest Moments of Election Day 2014
og:description: What other night would have Jack Sparrow, Kanye West and a Mitch McConnell photobomb?
og:url: https://time.com/3557765/quirky-election-day/
og:site_name: TIME
og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57635dc194b69e1c/6987643a428a9e3ad1cc4e2b/mitch-mcconnell-voter-gesture.jpg?branch=production&amp;width=3840&amp;quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;crop=16:9
og:image:width: 1200
og:image:height: 675
og:image:alt: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Casts His Vote In Midterm Elections
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twitter:card: summary_large_image
twitter:title: The Weirdest Moments of Election Day 2014
twitter:description: What other night would have Jack Sparrow, Kanye West and a Mitch McConnell photobomb?
twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57635dc194b69e1c/6987643a428a9e3ad1cc4e2b/mitch-mcconnell-voter-gesture.jpg?branch=production&amp;width=3840&amp;quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;crop=16:9
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![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57635dc194b69e1c/6987643a428a9e3ad1cc4e2b/mitch-mcconnell-voter-gesture.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)


# The Weirdest Moments of Election Day 2014


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by 

[Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)


![Tessa Berenson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0484fe1b20c577/698a0ced86f68ed9d96ee9e6/tessa-berenson-author-2020.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Tessa Berenson


Nov 5, 2014 3:35 AM UTC

![Sen. Mitch McConnell \(R-KY\) Casts His Vote In Midterm Elections](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57635dc194b69e1c/6987643a428a9e3ad1cc4e2b/mitch-mcconnell-voter-gesture.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2)

A voter gestures as U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) votes in the midterm elections at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky. on Nov. 4, 2014.

A voter gestures as U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) votes in the midterm elections at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky. on Nov. 4, 2014.Aaron P. Bernstein—Getty Images

![Tessa Berenson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0484fe1b20c577/698a0ced86f68ed9d96ee9e6/tessa-berenson-author-2020.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1)

by 

[Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)


![Tessa Berenson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0484fe1b20c577/698a0ced86f68ed9d96ee9e6/tessa-berenson-author-2020.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Tessa Berenson


Nov 5, 2014 3:35 AM UTC

Election Day is a serious moment in American politics. New politicians are elected to important offices, policy fights are decided and the system of government is granted legitimacy by the participation of the people.

But a lot of weird things happen too.

Governor Jay Nixon tweeted a photo encouraging people to go vote. The picture went viral and had everyone cracking up before he took it down.

> [](https://twitter.com/greta/status/529755784566276096)

But there was another strong contender for photo of the day thanks to this Kentucky voter, who didn’t let ballot partitions stand in the way of a photobomb of Sen. Mitch McConnell.

![Sen. Mitch McConnell \(R-KY\) Casts His Vote In Midterm Elections](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57635dc194b69e1c/6987643a428a9e3ad1cc4e2b/mitch-mcconnell-voter-gesture.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp)

A voter gestures as U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) votes in the midterm elections at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky. on Nov. 4, 2014. Aaron P. Bernstein—Getty Images

Once people made it into the ballot booth, things got a little weird too. The famously inebriated (and fictional) Capt. Jack Sparrow of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” [swashbuckled his way](http://fortressamerica.gawker.com/yes-this-captain-jack-sparrow-election-ballot-is-reall-1654523058?utm%5Fcampaign=socialflow%5Fgawker%5Ftwitter&utm%5Fsource=gawker%5Ftwitter&utm%5Fmedium=socialflow) into the race for Hennepin, Minn., County Commission.

This ballot in Kansas, meantime, could have used some “arrrs” in the line for governor.

> [](https://twitter.com/kansaswriter/status/529791679713124352)

And of course, no national event would be complete without [some wisdom from Kanye West,](http://time.com/3557548/kanye-west-obama-tweets/) who waited to do his celebrity get-out-the-vote tweet until pretty late on Election Day.

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