After a long and masterful campaign to have himself removed from the ballot only to put himself back on the ballot, Culpeper Delegate Nick Freitas’ master plan to help voters finally spell his name correctly in a write-in campaign begins.
More from the Culpeper Star-Exponent:
“The voters know exactly what’s at stake if we lose: Democrats take control of the government in Virginia,” said Freitas’ campaign manager Joe Desilets, a Republican consultant who worked on the Donald Trump presidential campaign, in a phone call Monday. “And the voters know the legislation that will go along with that—partial birth abortion and restrictions on gun ownership in Virginia.”
More to the point, the method of actually writing in a candidate’s name on the ballot is pretty straightforward. So long as the voter intent is clear? The ballot stands according to Culpeper registrar James Clements:
Asked about spelling discrepancies with write-in votes, Clements said state code governs the local electoral board, which instructs, “Any ballot marked so that the intent of the voter is clear shall be counted.”
“We are preparing for a busy fall with 17 different ballot styles in use in the county and we’re respectful that each race on them is important to the candidates and voters,” he said.
Trained election officers will be at each polling site on Election Day to answer questions and assist anyone who requests it, Clements added. Election Night results will include an unofficial tally of the total number of write-in votes cast in each race, but not votes for individual candidates, he said.
So just in case we have any Frietas or Free-toes or Freitahs involved, the voter intent remains the key.
Of course, this is pure speculation… but we here at TRS believe that Nick Freitas was simply tired of folks constantly misspelling or mispronouncing his name. Ergo the masterstroke of conducting a six-figure campaign to once and for all time vindicate his forefathers in the public square and leave no doubt.