A handful of school board races and proposed tax hikes remained horse races in early election returns Tuesday.

• Mike Anderson, the state school board incumbent and write-in candidate in Utah County's District 12, garnered no early votes.

Still, he understood write-ins would be counted after the regular ballots, and final results available in a day or two.

"I'm the eternal optimist," he said. "When it comes to realism, I don't know how we'll stack up."

Candidate Mark Cluff, meanwhile, posted a comfortable early lead over opponent David Adamic, co-founder of John Hancock Charter School.

"I'm optimistic, but (we've) got a long ways to go," Cluff said. "I hope it's because of the message I'm trying to get out, to make sure we're efficiently using the funds we have and that we're taking care of teachers."

The software company co-founder also has expressed interest in supporting tax credits for private school tuition.

Anderson missed a ballot spot when a candidate nominating committee didn't forward his name to the governor for ballot selection.

Colleagues cried foul, saying the committee favored business over education interests. Committee members said they picked the best candidates.

Anderson launched an aggressive write-in campaign, but Tuesday night worried supporters would become confused by the process. Utah County polling places ran out of secrecy envelopes that indicated where to place a write-in's name. Ballots instead were wrapped in plain white paper.

"Most of my friends who knew what to do found it very, very difficult to do once they got in the booth," Anderson said. "I probably had about 100 people tell me that tonight."

• Granite District's contest between 20-year incumbent Lynn Davidson and former Oakridge Elementary principal Carole Cannon remained close in early returns.

"It's been a very fun campaign; it's been a lot of hard work. I'm confident I could be successful, but that's up to the voters," Davidson said.

"I think it's going to be a very close race," Cannon said.

Cannon edged Davidson in the primary. Davidson in turn mounted the most aggressive campaign of his incumbency, touting experienced leadership and fiscal responsibility.

Cannon hopes to shrink class sizes and resurrect arts education programs if elected.

• Tooele Board of Education incumbent Julia Holt posted an early narrow lead over Gary W. Steadman, who edged her in the primary by three votes.

"I'm just watching (votes) come in, hoping I'm able to continue doing what I've done the last four years, but it looks like it's close," Holt said.