Manassas Park City Voter Registrar Patricia Brendel hasn’t seen anything like this in her 18 years on the job.
No one is running to fill two of three open city council seats which that are up this General Election on November 8.
Donald Shuemaker is running to fill one of three open seats on the Manassas Park City Governing Body. But with no candidates for the other two seats, that will leave city officials counting write-in ballots to see who will fill the other two open seats. The top two names on the most write-in ballots win the seats.
It’s an unprecedented situation in Manassas Park where candidates have not signed up to run for two open seats on the seven-member Governing Body. The deadline to get one’s name on the ballot for the upcoming November Election has come and gone.
To date, only one person has declared to city elections officials they are mounting a write-in campaign. They didn’t share that name with us as to avoid showing favoritism to one candidate, as there may be others running similar write-in campaigns but have yet to notify city hall.
The two top-write in vote getters who win the seats will be requried to file campaign finance declarations upon their victory, just like any other candidate whose name appeared on the ballot. In fact, anyone who is running a write-in campaign should head to the city’s voter registrar’s office to notify city officials, they said.
“We don’t want people to think this is funny. This is somebody who is going to be running our city, and it’s a very serious thing when you’re doing a write-in campaign. We don’t want people to thing its something that you make fun of, or people to think it’s a game,” said Manassas Park City Voter Registrar Patricia Brendel.
Brendel assures us that Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck won’t win, despite how many write-in ballots the fictional characters get.
“It has to be a real person,’ she said.
Voter turnout is expected to be higher this November due to the presidential election. Manassas Park elections officials will place sample ballots on the city website for voters to view before heading to the polls.
Locally, this election will bring overall changes to the makeup of the Manassas Park Governing Board. Mayor Frank Jones is defending his seat against current Councilwoman Janet Rishell who gave up her seat on the Governing Body to run for Mayor.
Vice Mayor Bryan Polk and Councilman Keith Miller are not seeking reelection.
*Editors note: An earlier version of this story stated Polk and Miller were seeking reelection.
