Most of the time, the write-in slot for elections is an afterthought.
Not for some Rabun County residents voting for the Board of Education’s District 5 seat, though.
Rabun County’s Director of the Board of Elections and Registration Tammy Whitmire said that just one candidate qualified for the primaries in May.
That was Incumbent Molly Lima, who then moved out of the state after the race began.
“That put that seat into a write-in category,” Whitmire said. “We did have three individuals that signed up to be write-in.”
Candidate Rick Story was appointed in May to finish Lima’s term and now runs against two other write-in candidates.
The qualified candidates are Story, Jason Streetman, and Eric Thurmond.
Whitmire said to qualify as a write-in candidate, you have to run an advertisement in the local newspaper stating that you are going to be an official candidate.
So that means the only write-in votes that will count will be for the three qualified candidates.
Whitmire also added that if the spelling of the candidate’s name is far enough off, it will not be able to be counted.
“It has to be where I know the intent of the voter,” Whitmire said. “You have to be able to spell it close to being correct.”
Whitmire said the intent of the voter is up to her and a team that will tally the votes. If there is a really big issue, though, it will have to be taken to the state board if they can not agree on the intent.
“They’re either going to know them, and we put it on the door,” Whitmire said. “We do have the write-in candidate’s name at the vote review table.”
Whitmire said that voters have until the time they cast their ballot to make sure they got their write-in correct.
Also, the results will not be counted until the next day due to the nature of hand-counting the names of the candidates.
Early voting started on Tuesday with the general election set for Nov. 5.
