When Kathy Tanner and John Edmonds Kozma launched write-in campaigns for Lake Lure mayor after regular candidate filing had already closed, Lake Lure Insider had an obvious question: does a write-in vote for either of them actually count, or does North Carolina require some kind of advance paperwork first?

We put that question directly to the Rutherford County Board of Elections. The answer, in writing, from Board of Elections Director Dawn Lovelace: yes, their votes count, and no, neither candidate needed to file anything in advance.

"Municipal elections are decided by simple plurality," Lovelace wrote. State law's signature-petition requirement for write-in candidates — the process that applies to statewide, district and county-level races — specifically excludes municipal elections under G.S. 163-123(h)(1). "Any valid written-in name will be counted, between election night and canvass," she said. There is no cutoff date by which a write-in candidate has to have announced, and no petition was required or filed for this race.

Two real eligibility rules do apply to any municipal write-in candidate, Lovelace said: they must be at least 21 years old on Election Day, and they must live within Lake Lure's town limits.

There's also a separate, lower-stakes requirement that has nothing to do with whether votes count: a write-in candidate who is actively campaigning has to notify the Board of Elections within 10 days of publicly announcing, or within 10 days of first receiving or spending campaign money, whichever comes first, so the same campaign finance disclosure rules that apply to every other candidate kick in. Based on their announcement dates, that window would have closed around Sept. 3 for Kozma (who announced Aug. 24) and around Sept. 20 for Tanner (who announced Sept. 10). Lake Lure Insider has not yet confirmed whether either notification has been filed, and will follow up.

The bottom line for voters: if you want to back Tanner or Kozma for mayor on Nov. 3, writing their name on the ballot's write-in line is all it takes for that vote to count. Read more about both campaigns — and about the third, four-legged name some residents are floating — in our earlier report, "Two Write-In Candidates — and a Goat — Now Challenging an Unopposed Mayor Pritchett."

Source: Written email response from Dawn Lovelace, Director, Rutherford County Board of Elections, Sept. 11, 2026.

Last updated: 2026-09-15