Voting is usually a multiple-choice experience, but several spots on Richmond ballots were a fill-in-the-blank test, and, in Charlestown, a former Town Council president who wasn’t running for anything this year was surprised to learn she had won a seat on the Chariho School Committee.

Deborah A. Carney, who served from 2002 to 2006 on the Charlestown council, some as president, got unofficial word yesterday that about 13 voters wrote her name in on the ballot for Charlestown committee member on the Chariho School Committee.

She apparently won the seat being vacated by Giancarlo Cicchetti, who won by write-in vote four years ago.

“I did not seek the office,” Carney said yesterday. “Imagine my surprise.”

It didn’t come as a complete surprise.

“A couple of people approached me and said, ‘I’ve been told to vote for you.’ ” She couldn’t figure who was behind it, she said, adding that she had urged people to write in Cicchetti’s name for another term.

Whether she will serve is another question. “I will definitely need to discuss it with my family,” she said yesterday, explaining that she left public service in 2006 because she missed time with her husband and son, who is now 14.

Richmond had two Chariho School Committee seats to fill and only one candidate, William G. Day, a Republican who has served since 1995, most recently as chairman. He was reelected with 2,618 votes, according to unofficial results reported yesterday by the state Board of Elections after mail ballots were added to Tuesday night’s machine totals.

Michelle Cole, a mother of three and a Chariho graduate, planned to run next year, she said, but when she saw that one of Richmond’s seats was going uncontested, she launched a write-in campaign.

Apparently 94 voters closed the arrow correctly and wrote in Cole’s name. She won.

—Donita Naylor