Champaign City Council will receive a new member to its District 5 seat after Tuesday’s election. This may sound familiar, considering the winner of Tuesday’s election will become the fourth council member to fill the seat in the past two years.

Dave Johnson originally won the four-year term in 2009, but stepped down last year in March for a new job in Cleveland. Gordy Hulten filled the seat next but stepped down in January to become Champaign County Clerk.

This past February, Linda Cross was appointed by the council to fill the seat as an interim member. She said she had no intention of running for re-election.

Cathy Emanuel, Paul Faraci and Jim McGuire will all try to win the remaining two years of Johnson’s term. Each candidate also ran for the position in February, but the council decided instead to go with Cross as an interim to keep from giving someone an advantage in this Tuesday’s election.

However, voters will find that none of these candidates will have their names on the ballot. When Hulten resigned, the period to register a candidate’s name for Tuesday’s ballot had already passed. If any of the three candidates are to get the position, they will have to rely on voters writing in their names on the ballot.

“I don’t think it will be a problem since it hasn’t in the past,” Hulten said. “Usually if you’re going through the trouble of writing in a candidate then people will make it neat enough to be read.”

The voters’ name spellings do not have to be perfect but must be at least legible to the election judges. As long as election judges have a clear understanding of what the voter intended to write, the vote will count.

Hulten said he thinks some voters will skip the vote on District 5 because they do not know who to write in but added it will affect all three candidates all the same.

Emanuel is a health care administrator with a background in business development. She does not affiliate with any party. Emanuel said her knowledge of budget issues from her experience in the health care department could help the council.

Faraci is an economic developer who served on the county board in 2000. Faraci, a Democrat, said he wanted the seat because he has a “vested interest and care for the people.”

McGuire is storekeeper at the University and has been a Republican candidate for the Champaign School Board. McGuire said he has been an active member in the community and served the public as a member of the school board. Any write-in votes that are not for one of the three candidates will be disqualified.