We’re about a month away from the August primaries, and no one has filed to run for the position of Lincoln Township Clerk.
Current Clerk Stacy Loar-Porter is running for Berrien County Clerk, creating a vacancy.
Loar-Porter tells us no one filed in time to appear on the partisan primary ballot in the township. However, there was one Democrat who filed as a write-in this past week. If that person passes a certain threshold of write-in votes in August, then their name will appear on the November ballot.
As of Friday, no Republicans had filed, not even as write-ins.
Loar-Porter tells us the lone write-in candidate’s threshold to make it on the November ballot depends on how many ballots are cast in total in the primary, but she estimates about 50 write-in votes would be enough.
Meanwhile, if no one wins the election for clerk, then the Lincoln Township Board of Trustees would have to appoint a clerk. That person would serve until the next general election, or about two years, and then there would be another election for clerk.
Loar-Porter says the deadline for write-in candidates to file so they stand a chance of making the November ballot is July 18.
Due to changes being made in the structure of Lincoln Township’s government this year — with the switch to a township manager model — the position of clerk is going from full-time to part-time.
Berrien County Clerk Sharon Tyler tells us write-in candidates have indeed been elected a few times in the county. She said it’s happened in Niles and Eau Clair. However, she wasn’t aware of an instance in which a township clerk was elected as a write-in candidate.
