A Write-in Candidate Challenges in Fredericksburg School Board Race

Write-in candidates can, and do win, races. Here are some things to know as Stan Jones rolls out a write-in campaign for Fredericksburg's Ward 4 School Board seat.

SEP 22, 2025

By Martin Davis, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Prior to this weekend, the race for Fredericksburg School Board seats in Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4 featured just one contested election — Ward 3, where Annie Langdon is facing off against Sarah Stelmok.

This past Friday, however, Stan Jones launched a write-in campaign for School Board in Ward 4, which is currently occupied by Malvina Rollins Kay. Kay has run unopposed in Ward 4, according to the Virginia Department of Elections, every election since 2006.

Can Jones win?

A write-in campaign is no easy path to victory, but candidates do win them, and perhaps more often than people might think.

In 2019, for example, VPAP reports that 44 candidates in Virginia won write-in campaigns. The vast majority of these were candidates for Soil and Water Conservation Board, as well as School Board. Together, they accounted for 35 of the 44 races. VPAP also noted that “All but two of the winners came in elections in which no candidates qualified for the ballot or there were more seats than the number of candidates running.” One of the exceptions was Nick Freitas, who won HD 30 as a write-in candidate, garnering 14,694 votes. The advantage he had, however, was that he was running as an incumbent who had not qualified for the ballot. In 2021, when Kay last ran, there were 1,734 votes cast in Ward 4 for School Board.

Voting Write-in

The Virginia statute governing write-in votes is § 24.2-648, which states in part:

Except on machines that provide a means to enter a name electronically, each write-in vote shall be entered by the voter in his own handwriting or hand printing.

The Advance asked Jessica Atkinson, Director of Elections / General Registrar in Fredericksburg, what voters should be aware of when writing in a candidate.

Atkinson said that voters “can use derivations of the candidate’s name but it must be recognizable as the same person.” She then used her own name as an example. “For example,” she said, voters “can write in Jessica Atkinson, Jess Atkinson or JB Atkinson however if they write me in as J B it could not be assumed that is me.”

The general election is November 4. Read Jones’ press release announcing his candidacy, below.