R.J. Kost and Jim Carlson will join the Powell Hospital District Board in January after successful write-in campaigns.Unofficial results from the Park County Clerk's office show Kost won 521 of the 1,652 write-in votes cast in the Nov. 2 general election race for four seats on the board.

Carlson received 283.

Carlson said he was honored to be elected to the board.

His wife, Kay Carlson, served on the board for several years before her death this spring.

“It's an extra effort to write in a name, and fill in the oval,” Carlson said Friday. “I'm honored that the people went the extra mile to do that.”

He said he's excited to begin his service on the board.

“This is a new beginning,” he said. “We've got a great hospital and will have two new administrators. It's definitely a changing time. But, if you're not growing, you're dying. You can't do forever what you've done in the past.”

Kost also said he was grateful for voters' efforts to write his name in.

“I was very amazed at the number of write-in votes,” he said. “I just hope that I can represent them in the best way possible.

“I plan to do as much catch-up as I can,” he said Friday. “Whatever they have that they can give me, what I can learn, that's what I've got to do.”

Kost said he has no particular concerns other than representing the public, meeting challenges before the board and making the best decisions possible.

“I certainly don't have all the answers, and I certainly have a lot to learn,” he said.

Results for other write-in candidates for the hospital district board were: Cathy Marine, 204 votes; Virginia Fish, 190; Henry Yaple, 76; and Vicki Gibson, 23.

Many other names were written in, but each of them only received one or two votes.

As per state law, misspelled names were accepted if the voter's intent was “obvious.” For example, Park County Clerk Kelly Jensen said there was an instance where a voter wrote in what looked like, “A.J. Kost,” and Marine's name had a couple different spellings.

Write-in results were not available until Thursday because of the large number of write-in votes for the district race, as well as the time it took to count votes for Taylor Haynes, write-in candidate for governor, Jensen said.

The other two four-year seats on the hospital board went to Renee Humphries and incumbent Jim Beukelman, who also were elected Tuesday. They were the only official board candidates on the ballot. Sharea LinDae MoAn-Renaud filed for election but later withdrew her name from consideration.