School and city council elections are coming up, and members of those boards have already been talking about re-election.
The filing period for school board and city council runs from Monday, Aug. 28, through Sept. 21 at 5 p.m. Interested people can pick up the needed forms at the Linn County auditor’s office, school district offices or city hall locations.
For school boards and city council, candidates must be a citizen of the United States, a resident of Iowa, at least 18 years of age, not have been a convicted felon, not judged incompetent to vote by a court and cannot claim the right to vote in any other place.
For those who want to run for the office, the minimum requirement for signatures needed for school board is one percent of the number of registered voters or 50 people, whichever is less. For city council, Lisbon signatures would be at least 10 signatures to get on the ballot and Mount Vernon would be a minimum of 25. Petitions should include candidates’ name, office sought, the school district running for, the type and date of the election and signers’ affirmation of their residences.
Lisbon School Board will have three seats up for election this year, as Abbe Stensland, John Prasil and Jen Casper’s seats are up for election. Mount Vernon School Board will have five seats up for election, as Dr. Lori Merlak also vacated her seat on the school board this fall. Lisbon council has four seats up for election, including mayor and three council members. Mount Vernon has three council members seats up for election (Scott Rose, Deb Herrmann, Craig Engel) as well as the mayor’s seat.
We know that people might be considering running for seats again or new candidates might be interested in running for the first time. We wish candidates all the best in their campaigning efforts for these seats.