A vacancy on the Lincoln County School Board will mean one seat won’t be elected in the near future, something that opponents of the district’s early plan to appoint members to correct an election mix-up probably won’t like.

District 3 board member Ricky Welch announced his resignation last week, and the board will now  appoint his replacement. Had Welch resigned earlier this summer, his seat could have been included in November’s election if board members so desired. But resigning after qualifying ended for school board candidates guaranteed that there would not be time for that.

It’s another wrinkle in what has been a messy situation for the school board. At some point in the past, it was discovered that school board elections did not happen when they should have. Welch appears to be a good example of this. He was elected to the board in 2008, which means he began serving in 2009. He was re-elected in 2015, meaning he served a seven-year term, instead of six.

There were other abnormalities as well, and the result is this year’s election cycle that will see districts 1, 2 and 5 on the ballot.

It’s a big mess that was initially going to be solved by appointing board members. Once it was brought to the district’s attention that the plan would result in a majority appointed school board — not elected — the new plan of special elections was created.

And now here we are with another appointed member.  We encourage the school board to choose wisely when seeking Welch’s replacement. Voters who didn’t like the district’s original plan to appoint members to correct the election mix-up won’t look kindly on an appointee who appears to be unqualified or appears to be put on the board to serve a political purpose.