Nancy Workman's withdrawal from the Salt Lake County mayor's race because of medical disability closes the door on her political career, at least for now. But it opens the way for the Republican Party to put the name of a new candidate, presumably Ellis Ivory, on the ballot. Otherwise, Ivory has to run as a write-in, which is much more difficult than having his name appear on the ballot as the Republican candidate.

Whether Workman, by ending her campaign this way, is helping the county GOP to game the system is debatable. Under state election law, the only way in the current circumstances the party can pick a new candidate to replace Workman on the Nov. 2 ballot is if she “resigns because of becoming physically or mentally disabled as certified by a physician.” Workman's doctor has given his written opinion that the stress caused by the felony charges she faces has disabled her from continuing her campaign without compromising her health.

There is no question that she has been politically disabled by the charges. But no one other than her doctor and Workman herself can know whether she is truly disabled physically or mentally. For that reason, we are prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Whether a stress-related disability stretches the language of the statute beyond the breaking point only matters if the county Republican central committee decides to submit a name to replace Workman's on the ballot. At this writing, the central committee has not met to consider the matter. Presumably, if it were to select a new candidate, that would be Ivory, because the committee gave his write-in campaign its endorsement when it met last week. At that time, Workman had refused to abandon her campaign.

If the GOP were to name Ivory to its place on the ballot, others in the election would have to decide whether to challenge in court Workman's withdrawal due to disability. Such a lawsuit would further complicate an already complex election and could alienate voters.

Voters who believe that the Republican Party, Workman and Ivory are playing games could register their own judgment by casting their ballots for someone else, such as Democrat Peter Corroon or independent Merrill Cook.

We can think of one benefit to the electorate of having Ivory on the ballot. It would give voters a straight-up choice between Republican Ivory, Democrat Corroon and independent Cook without the complication of the Ivory write-in, which is likely to confuse voters. Of course, putting Ivory directly on the ballot also would greatly improve his election chances.

Nevertheless, the only logical explanation for why Workman withdrew the way she did was to give her party the opportunity to put a replacement candidate's name on the ballot. In the end, she took one for the team.