They spelled her name Shanna Snead, Channon Sneed, Shannon Sheed, Need 4 Sneed and many other variations on the theme, but almost all of the misspelled write-in votes apparently cast for political novice Shannon Sneed in Tuesday’s General Election were approved today by Baltimore election officials.

The Board of Canvassers did throw out some – like a write-in vote for “Shannon Branch” – but the Sneed team, present for the Board’s meeting, had no objections to the board’s rulings.

“They seemed to be very fair,” said Kimberly Wiggins, Sneed’s volunteer coordinator, who along with campaign organizer Grant Corley, accompanied Sneed to the Board of Elections in downtown Baltimore.

The canvassers reviewed absentee votes today and will be meeting again on Wednesday to look at provisional votes. On Friday Nov. 18 the panel will meet for another canvass, looking at additional late-arriving absentee ballots before finally certifying the vote.

Sneed’s opponent, City Councilman Warren M. Branch, appeared to have won the election decisively Tuesday night when the final tally showed Branch with 1,691 votes and 1,490 for all write-in votes.

The canvassers came up with an additional 11 absentee votes today, which brought Sneed’s write-in total to 1,475. Sneed said she would have no comment until all the votes are counted and the vote certified.

Late in the day, Branch’s total on the Board of Elections website was showing 1,720.