DAVE & DUJANOVIC
Write-in candidate requests a list mailed to voters, naming write-in candidates
Aug 24, 2020, 7:25 PM | Updated: Aug 25, 2020, 2:33 pm
Applications for voter ballots are seen at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Tuesday, July 14, 2020, in Cleveland. As more states embrace mail-in balloting, an often overlooked detail has emerged as a partisan dividing line: postage. Questions over whether postage will be required for absentee ballot applications and ballots themselves, who pays for it and what happen to envelopes without stamps are the subject of lawsuits and Statehouse political brawls. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
(UPDATE: KSL Newsradio has corrected this story by removing reference to a write-in candidacy for Tina Cannon. We apologize for the error.)
SALT LAKE CITY — A write-in candidate for public office in Utah, concerned about the changes to the primary season due to COVID-19, has asked the Lt. Governor’s office for help. She wants the office to include a list of write-in candidates when the ballots are mailed to voters.
Simply, she wants voters to know she’s out there.
“Because of COVID,” said Marci Campbell, “so much of that primary process was interrupted. For instance, caucus night in the Republican party was canceled.
“One of the outcomes of that would be that delegates that maybe wanted to run in support of certain candidates were not able to run.”
She says she is also concerned about the delegate selection process, and the limited amount of time she had to speak with delegates about her candidacy.
Campbell was running as a Republican for Utah Senate District 23 and is now a write-in candidate.
Utah’s director of elections Justin Lee, says the request is extraordinary and not something accounted for in Utah election law.
“There’s not really any precedent for this at all,” Lee told KSL Newsradio.
“For a write-in candidate, the law says that a line goes on the ballot where someone can write-in the candidate’s name. And that’s about it.”
“There are other portions of the law that deal with what’s included with the ballot, what may go in the envelope. And a list of write-in candidates is not really something that is contemplated in the law,” Lee said.
Lee says they’ll have their attorneys look at the request. Campbell says she wants an answer by September 7, 2020.
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