Write-in bid for Smith County clerk

SMITH COUNTY — A candidate who was previously disqualified from the Smith County Clerk race announced she will now run as a write-in candidate after several errors were found during the review of required signatures. According to our news partner KETK, Terry Morrow was set to run against the incumbent Karen Phillips in the Smith County Republican Party Primary election on March 3. A review of Morrow’s required signatures found that there were significant errors, including missing printed names, incorrect dates of birth and a missing or incomplete affidavit of circulator statement of intent.

Because of the errors discovered, 139 signatures were declared invalid, leaving Morrow short of the required 500 to run. Morrow was later declared ineligible and she was not certified to be on the ballot, leaving Karen Phillips to run unopposed. Morrow declared on Thursday that she would run as a write-in candidate for the Nov. 3 general election.

Voting for a write-in candidate allows voters to manually enter a candidate’s name on the ballot instead of selecting one of the listed candidates. Registered voters in Smith County will have the opportunity to choose their preferred candidate on Nov. 3.