Mayoral write-in could rewrite history

Cedar Fort may be the place to live for anyone who wants to win office by write-in. For example, Dennis Malmstrom won a write-in race for the City Council there last year by getting just 17 votes for a seat no one had filed for.

• In 2002, Bart D. Albrecht won 665-609 as a write-in candidate against incumbent Wayne County Sheriff Don Torgerson. However, the gas station worker was blocked from taking office because he was not a certified law officer. In 1998, Marty Gleave won a write-in campaign for Piute County sheriff with 563 votes, or 67 percent.

• The 1995 city elections were especially kind to write-in candidates statewide, with 32 of them winning. They were elected to city and town councils in Altamont, Alton, Antimony, Bear River, Bicknell, Brian Head, Castle Valley, Henrieville, Holden, Honeyville, Laketown, Moroni, Ophir, Randolph, Santaquin, Scipio, Scofield, Snowville, Sterling, Wallsburg and Woodruff.

However, in eight of those communities, no one ran besides the write-in candidates.

That led to some interesting situations. For example, the bad news for write-in candidate Ken Tuttle of Holden was that he lost the race for its four-year council seat, losing to other write-in candidates. The good news was Holden won the two-year council seat, in part by beating the write-in candidates who had won the four-year seat.

• Other offices won recently by write-in candidates include the Washington Terrace City Council (1999 by John Dallinga), the Alpine City Council (1999 by Mel Clement), the Kane County School Board (1998 by Colleen Brinkerhoff), the North Summit School Board (1998 by Jana Ross), and the Grand County Council (1994 by Bart Leavitt).

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E-mail: ldavidson@desnews.com