Write-in votes plentiful in Webster and Forest Hills

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Write-in votes plentiful in Webster and Forest Hills

election time It looks like a shortage of candidates for town board in Webster and Forest Hills won’t mean empty seats in town hall over the next term.

Results from both towns show substantial numbers of write-in votes, though it’s not yet known how many different names those write-in votes represent. To win as a write-in candidate, said Jackson County Election Director Lisa Lovedahl-Lehman, a person must meet all the qualifications to run for office and receive at least five write-in votes.

Over the next week, the Jackson County Board of Elections will tally and verify the results. At this point, Lovedahl-Lehman said, all she can say is that multiple people were named on write-in ballots in each town — it wasn’t a unified vote for one person.

In Webster, two seats were up for election, with only one person — incumbent Billie Jo Bryson — named on the ballot. Bryson received 13 votes, with 28 votes cast for a write-in candidate.

Webster resident Jade Moses has been reported to be running a write-in campaign, but another write-in candidate has surfaced as well — a campaign to “elect” a deceased dog named Chester owned by a town resident. As of press time, the Board of Elections had not determined how many different people — or dogs — were named in the Webster write-in votes.

Write-in votes will also be a factor for the village of Forest Hills. Mayor Kolleen Begley, who ran unopposed, received 25 votes to continue serving, and town council member Ron Mau, also unopposed, received 23 votes. But no candidate filed to hold the second open seat. Seventeen write-in votes for that seat were cast, with multiple people named on those ballots, Lovedahl-Lemon said.