Two Libby residents file write-in campaigns for county seats

The deadline for write-in candidates expired Sept. 6 and Lincoln County saw two candidates file for local races as declared write-ins for the 2022 general election on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

According to Paula Buff, Lincoln County election administrator, Amanda Eckart of Libby filed for the office of the county public administrator on Aug. 24 and Stu Crismore of Libby filed for the District 1 county commissioner seat on Aug. 18.

Crismore will oppose incumbent Brent Teske for the District 1 seat. Teske collected 2,160 votes in the June primary, beating Crismore by just 140 votes.

Teske was appointed to replace Mark Peck on the board last year after Peck’s resignation. Teske previously served as Libby’s mayor and before that on city council.

The winner in November will then serve out the remaining four years of Peck’s original term.

Republican Jim Hammons, the current county administrator and public administrator, won the other commissioner seat — representing the Troy District — with 3,724 votes. The seat is currently held by Jerry Bennett, who did not run for re-election.

Hammons, a previous mayor of Troy, spent more than a decade as Libby’s city administrator.

No one filed to run in the primary for the county’s public administrator position.

Eckart currently serves as a deputy clerk in the Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder’s Office and as an election administrator.

There were no federal declared write-in candidates.