The Magna resident cast her absentee ballot after someone else entered the Salt Lake County mayor's race. That gave her a chance to vote for a new candidate.

Home builder Ellis Ivory announced his bid for the mayor's seat, and Jones penned him on her ballot and mailed it in.

She is one of the lucky ones.

Hundreds of absentee ballots were cast well before the Ivory announcement, and many of those mailed-in votes could be for incumbent Nancy Workman, who dropped out of the race this week.

"If you didn't know, then you wouldn't be able" to vote for someone else, Jones said Wednesday. "I guess it wouldn't be fair."

Utah law does not allow a voter who has already cast an early ballot to change a vote - even if a candidate withdraws. So all the votes that Workman may have accumulated from absentee ballots won't be counted, and those voters now do not have a chance to change their vote for another candidate.

"That's one of the stickiest issues were dealing with," said County Elections Director Julio Garcia.

Workman, who is on paid leave and facing two felony charges of misuse of public money, dropped from the race, citing medical reasons. Workman filed her withdrawal with a letter from her physician, who said that continuing as a candidate could endanger her physical and emotional condition.

Elections officials are scrambling to cover every possible scenario that may come out in the next few weeks before Election Day. What's still unclear is, if Ivory gets on the Nov. 2 ballot - a move Republicans now want - do previous straight-party votes count for him? Election officials are asking for legal opinions on that and other issues.

The Clerk's Office says it sent out some 8,500 ballots before Workman withdrew and about 800 ballots have been cast so far in the clerk's office. Soon after Workman withdrew from the race, her name was removed from absentee ballots.

But that doesn't help some voters who already sent in their vote. "There is no provision in Utah law to allow a revote," Garcia said.

tburr@sltrib.com