COEUR d'ALENE - Election night in Kootenai County looks like it's going to spill into Wednesday morning. How late - or early? That's anybody's guess.

"I hate to say but we are really in uncharted territory," County Clerk Dan English said Wednesday. "I know it [counting ballots] will be very lengthy and I expect into the early hours on Wednesday because the counting machines will stop each time there is a write-in ballot. That ballot will be removed to a write-in board of two people who will verify if it is a valid write-in."

Two races feature write-in challengers. Howard Griffiths is taking on incumbent state Rep. Phil Hart in District 3, and primary election winner Jai Nelson is being challenged by current Kootenai County Commissioner Rick Currie.

Because of interest in many local races - including English's clerk seat, North Idaho College's board of trustees and even Kootenai County coroner - voter turnout is expected to be strong. And handling all those write-in ballots promises to be challenging.

English said the two-person board has specific instructions to help determine whether a write-in ballot is valid or not.

"Our directions from the Secretary of State are as follows," said English: "That Section 34-1203, Idaho Code says that when a ballot is sufficiently plain to determine therefrom a part of the voter's intention, it shall be the duty of the clerks to count such ballots."

There's more.

English said, "The directions also tell us, 'Misspellings or abbreviations of the names of write-in candidates shall be disregarded if the individual for whom the vote was intended can be ascertained from the ballot.'"

In other words, names don't need to be spelled exactly right to be counted. But what happens if the two people determining eligibility disagree?

"That would go to the election supervisor and, if needed, probably the clerk," English said.