Primary election to have limited ballot

At the primary election on May 13, voters can expect to see a rather limited ballot. They will be able to vote concerning United States officials and state officials. However, they will not see any county, city, village, or board officials on the ballot just yet.

This is because the number of filed applicants does not exceed the number of open chairs for any particular office. Also with an update to LB-56, if a county partisan office does not have more candidates of a certain party than open chairs, the candidates are pushed forward to the general election. In some cases there are not enough applicants to fill the open positions. Concern was expressed by Mayor James Schnell on just that matter at the city council meeting on Tuesday, March 4.

“I’m really concerned and a little upset because of the lack of people filing for city council chairs. We’ve got two open chairs and only one filed for city council. At this point, we’ll need write ins to fill the chairs we need,” Schnell said.

County Clerk, Cathy Sibal, and her deputy, Josi Morgan, explained what would need to be done if an individual was seeking to petition to be on the ballot.

“If they want to petition onto the ballot because they missed the filing deadline, they would have to come in to the clerk’s office and there are papers they would get and then we would look up statutes that govern how many signatures they would need. Then they go out, get the signatures and bring them back here,” Sibal said.

The clerk’s office would then thoroughly check each signature to be sure that they were valid, and the person petitioning would then fill out the necessary paper work.

“After the signatures are confirmed as valid, we would have them fill out the paper work for the office they are running for and then pay the application fee. That’s still due even if they petition onto the ballot,” Morgan said.

In order to run for city council by petition, one would have to go to the city clerk’s office and pay the $12 fee and then take the receipt to the county clerk’s office so that they can confirm the filing and be sure that new applicant made it onto the ballot.

Sibal encourages all to come out to the primary and vote. Even though at the primary there will be no county or city positions to vote on, there will be state officers to vote for. Also, Democrats have made it possible for libertarians to vote for them in the primary. This is huge considering that before libertarians usually saw nothing on the primary for them to take part in unless there was some sort of non-partisan issue. Sibal emphasized that the arrangements made for the May 13th primary are all for the voters.

“It’s like we’re having a party on the voters behalf and if they don’t show up, who is the party for?” Sibal said.

Both Sibal and Morgan showed interest in voters coming out to the primary to vote on whatever was available. They also would like to see more people register to vote who are not yet registered.

“Voting is a privilege. It’s the people’s way to speak out and have a voice, and they need to take action and make sure they’re heard,” Sibal said.

As of the filing deadline on March 3, there have been three filings for county commissioner: Larry Engstrom as a democrat, Shaun Evertson as a republican, and Daria Anderson-Faden as a democrat. County assessor had one filing, Sherry Winstrom as a republican. County attorney had one filing, David L. Wilson as a republican. County clerk had one filing, Cathy Sibal as a republican. Clerk of district court had one filing, Debra Rahmig as a republican. County sheriff had one filing, Harry J. Gillway as a republican. County treasurer had one filing, Diana L. Quicke as a republican.

The city saw two filings for Kimball Mayor, John Morrison and Keith Prunty. Kimball City Council only had one file for a chair, James Schnell. Kimball Airport Authority, Robert Dunkin Jr. filed. Three filed for Kimball school board members, Jared Hunsaker, Brad Reader, and Jared Schnell. Bushnell Village board member had one filing, Steve Hickman. Dix Village board member also had one filing, Mark B. Miller. All of the above will be seen on the general election ballot.