NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Deputy Elections Clerk Jenna Fager said that with Cris Corey launching a formal write-in campaign for the District 1 seat on the Board of County Commissioners, she'll have some additional workers on hand in November.
"We do have a chart that we give the board workers," Fager said. "It's basically state guidelines on how we count write-ins," Fager said. "If the voter shows voter intent that they are wanting to vote for that candidate, then the board is instructed to count it."
Though votes are always finalized with the canvass, the hope is to be able to do the necessary counting to give people an idea, even on Nov. 8.
"It is something that we always deal with," Fager said. "When we have somebody that is knowingly running a write in campaign, what we do is, we actually bring in a board to come in and do a count on those, so we can kind of get some results on election night, instead of just guessing."
However, no additional instructions are given to voters that may be mailing in their ballots or things like that, it is up to the candidate to explain what needs to be written to prove intent.
Generally, unless more than one candidate has the same last name, a last name alone is counted. Misspellings of the correct first name are counted, but an incorrect first name with a correct last name is generally not counted.