Vote totals updated below: Update 1.

A last-minute write-in campaign in the primary may have insured there will be Democrats on the ballot for Region C of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board election in November.

Democrats had no one on the ballot, but began the write-in campaign for Gregg Lindner and Kathy Do 10 days before the May 17 primary.

Republicans Timotha Trigg, Sharon Jones and Frank Murphy were on both the Republican and Democratic Party primary ballots. Voters from either party could also vote for Lindner and Do as write-ins.

Region C is comprised of Chadds Ford and Pennsbury townships. Initial results show Chadds Ford Democrats giving Lindner and Do 119 votes while the pair received 363 votes in Pennsbury. The two also garnered 36 votes from Chadds Ford Republicans and 96 votes from the Pennsbury GOP.

On the Republican side, Murphy led the voting with 362 votes. Jones received 355 votes and Trigg 342.

Vote tallies are unofficial until verified, as is usually the case, but this year the counties must figure out the totals for each of the two write-candidates as well. It generally takes about a week for the votes to be verified.

Lindner, of Chadds Ford Township, had been an interim director for the latter part of 2009, but was defeated in a special election that year by Murphy. The Democrat said the write-in campaign was spurred by the resignation of U-CF superintendent.

“Things that were going on in the district with Sharon Parker retiring as superintendent with votes that had recently been taken around the funding of the school, it called a number of us to think about what it is that needed to be done. We felt the only way to express ourselves was to have a write-in campaign,” Lindner said.

He called Parker an “exemplary superintendent…When she leaves it should be a wake up call that there’s something about the district that people need to pay attention to.”

Lindner said votes by the current board led to a spiraling of how money was spent. The board, he said, has not raised taxes enough by not adding the Act 1-allowable exceptions to the budget, and that board members now are focused on cutting spending instead of finding alternative ways of raising revenue. He wants to look at naming rights for the sports stadium and for the libraries and auditoriums.

Jones, a Chester County internal audit manager and Republican committee woman in Pennsbury, said she chose to run because she has a lot at stake in the school board because she has two children attending school in the district.

“I’m looking to keep the high integrity of the education, but to also keep it fiscally sound,” Jones said. “One of my interests is to try to generate revenues outside of just taxing the individuals…I think there should be other opportunities where we could possibly generate money at the foundation level, maybe have an annual giving, sponsorships, maybe approach some of our corporate sponsors and use that money to enhance our school programs and take the burden off taxes.”

Jones is replacing Paul Price on the Republican ticket. Price decided to serve only one term on the board.

Update 1: According to Chester County Voter Services, Do received 191 votes in Pennsbury Township. Gregg Lindner received 162.

The Delaware County Department of Elections said it will not have the write-in votes available until two weeks after the election.