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Republican mayoral candidate Ellis Ivory won a coveted ballot spot Wednesday.
For seven hours.
Then it vanished.
A little after 8 a.m., Salt Lake County election workers put Ivory's name on ballots at their in-office voting machines.
About 700 votes later, at 3 p.m., a 3rd District judge ordered Ivory's name off the ballot, ruling that a doctor's note used by the former GOP nominee - incumbent Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman - to bow out of the race was ambiguous.
Election workers quickly altered the ballot again.
But they may have to change it back today after an emergency 11 a.m. hearing before the Utah Supreme Court, which cleared one hour to revisit Wednesday's lower court decision.
"Wow," said University of Utah political scientist Tim Chambless. "Can I believe it? Yes. Is it without precedent? Indeed. Is it politically unique? Golly, yes."
Within an hour after the Republican Party certified Ivory as its new nominee, the state and county Democratic parties sued County Clerk Sherrie Swensen, who had rejected two earlier GOP attempts to put Ivory on the ballot. But Swensen, a Democrat, accepted the latest certification after the Republican Central Committee voted Tuesday night to make Ivory the GOP nominee.
Workman, who is on paid leave and faces two felony charges of misuse of taxpayer money, dropped out of the race Oct. 12, citing medical reasons. State law allows a party to replace a nominee if the candidate is medically certified as mentally or physically disabled.
However, Judge Stephen Henriod ruled that letter was insufficient. "We shouldn't be willy-nilly substituting candidates along the way," he said.
Ivory, who originally joined the race as a write-in challenger, posted signs earlier Wednesday noting that he was now on the ballot. He stopped doing so after the ruling.
"It's a challenge," Ivory said. "The ballot issue is still in the hands of the judicial system and we're continuing our campaign to convince the people to vote for me as their mayor. But we may not know for another day how they're going to do it."
Ivory's main rival, Democrat Peter Corroon, said, "I keep saying it can't get more bizarre, and then it gets more bizarre."
Even so, he added, "We're still going to focus on our campaign and try not to be distracted by this."
Corroon accused the Republicans of an "unethical" ploy in maneuvering to get Ivory on the ballot. But the Democrat also disagreed with his party's lawsuit, calling it the "wrong course of action."
"The right thing to do is let the voters decide who would be best to run county government," Corroon said. "I'm confident I'm the best candidate."
Unaffiliated challenger Merrill Cook, a former GOP congressman who supports the Democratic Party's suit, applauded Henriod's ruling.
"I'm sure glad that a judge has stood up and stopped Ellis Ivory and the party bosses from trashing the rule of law and now we can have a fair election," Cook said.
Wednesday's expedited ruling throws the race into limbo only five days before voters go to the polls.
"I haven't been through a roller coaster like this that I can recall," veteran Utah pollster Dan Jones said. "This is one they'll always go back to and tell stories about."
Jones warns that voter confusion could grow if the ballot controversy isn't resolved - and soon.
"What people might decide to do is just not vote on that race at all because they're so confused now," Jones said, predicting a close contest.
State Democratic Chairman Donald Dunn said he agreed with the judge's finding on the doctor's letter.
"Mayor Workman is saying in public statements that she's discombobulated," said Dunn, noting that the law requires that she be disabled to be replaced on the ballot.
Nevertheless, Dunn reaffirmed that he would drop all legal challenges if Workman's doctor signs another note declaring the mayor physically or mentally disabled.
County GOP Chairwoman Tiani Coleman worries that voters will be disenfranchised if Ivory is off the ballot. "They need to have a choice," she said. "They need to have clarity."
Workman's attorney, David Jordan, was unavailable for comment Wednesday. He previously said that the doctor's letter speaks for itself and noted that the District Attorney's Office - headed by a Democrat - determined that it satisfied the legal requirement.
In court Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney Karl Hendrickson argued that the doctor's note was sufficient to replace a candidate and that the clerk was right to accept it. He was joined by Jim Jardine, representing the Republican Central Committee.
Jardine argued that Workman's physician, Philip Roberts, was talking about a present condition when he wrote that the strain of her legal woes "disable[s]" her from continuing in the race without compromising her health.
Jardine and the District Attorney's Office jointly appealed the case to the Utah Supreme Court.
If the justices uphold the decision to keep Ivory off the ballot and he remains a write-in challenger, it could delay definitive results - in a range of state, county and federal races - for days after Election Day, because write-in ballots would have to be hand-counted.
As for those voters who may have cast ballots for Ivory during those seven hours when his name was listed with the other candidates, it's unclear if those mayoral votes will ultimately count.
"I'm hoping we can come up with a way to count them," Swensen said.
However, all write-in votes cast for Ivory when he was not on the ballot will count.