Lonnie Erickson is still a Justice of the Peace candidate

When an individual chooses to run for a political position, they devote their entire time and energy to their campaign so as they are able to say no matter the outcome they gave it their all. Every candidate knows only one person will be elected in the end.

When a candidate wins in the primary election and forges ahead to the general election in November, that triumph renews the candidate and gives them the needed energy to fight for the election in November.

When a candidate opens the local paper on a Thursday morning ready to read the headlines, excited to know his family, friends and loyal supporters will be reading the same paper looking for his name in excitement, only to find the paper to read Chuck Wall was re-elected by a large margin as Justice of the Peace.

I would assume the newspaper would know how the political system works in a non-partisan race when you have four candidates running in the primary and two advancing to the general, but I was mistaken. Then to my amazement, I and others contacted the Leader immediately Thursday morning to bring their attention to the gross misrepresentation and was simply told a correction would be made in the next edition.

Additionally, the Leader editor indicated he felt that no harm would be done. I find that unacceptable. As my home phone began to ring and people began to state they are sorry my husband did not make it through the primary, but at least he gave it a good whirl, that shows me the damage has been done.

I want the voters of Lake County to know my husband, Lonnie Dean Erickson, is one of the two candidates for Lake County Justice of the Peace which made it through the primary election and moved on to the general election in November, which is when it will be decided who will be Justice of the Peace for Lake County.

Lee Ann Erickson

Polson

Editor's note: When we were contacted last week by Mr. Erickson, we informed him a correction would be printed, and we apologized for the inconvenience. In an effort to finalize the paper at 1 a.m. that Tuesday night after the initial results were in. I made a mistake in saying Chuck Wall was re-elected. The corrected information is noted on A1, with our updated story on the fact that Mr. Erickson and Chuck Wall will both be on the ballot in November.

Yes, Ms. Erickson is correct — I did tell her I thought the damage would be minimal since we corrected it this week on page one in a story with the official, updated results; Mr. Erickson still has four and a half months to continue campaigning; we will be having more stories on all the candidates in October; and his name will appear on the ballot with Mr. Wall's in November, allowing anyone who wants to vote for him to do so then.

I disagree with Ms. Erickson's assessment that "the damage has been done," since we corrected it and voters will be allowed to vote for Mr. Erickson and any other candidate in November, but I can understand why she's frustrated. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Ethan Smith, editor