News

Election petitions ready for Bottineau and the county

By Scott Wagar

01/10/2012

Individuals, who are interested in running for a city position in Bottineau, petition signing for the 2012 city election will start on Saturday of this week.

The first day to circulate petitions for the 2012 city election will begin on Jan. 14.

Four seats on the city council will be on the election ballot. Currently holding the four seats includes Grant Tagestad, Ron Martin, Harley Getzlaff and Greg Bernstein, who is filling out the remainder of Andy Freeman’s time on the council who left his position in November of 2011 when he relocated out of his ward.

There will be three Park Board seats on the ballot, which will include one seat that is a four year term and two seats that are two year terms. At the present moment, the three seats are open due to Park Board members resigning from their positions.

This year’s election will be different from the past city’s elections. Residents of Bottineau will not be voting by way of wards this election, instead they will be voting city-wide, or at large.

The present council voted in favor of changing elections from wards to at-large this past year to assist Bottineau County in its redistricting lines for the upcoming county’s election.

With voting at large, candidates who want to make a bid for one of the four council seats must receive 94 signatures on their petitions, which they can obtain throughout the entire community. Penny Nostdahl, Bottineau’s city auditor, encourages individuals to receive 100 signatures just in case some of the signatures are found to be invalid on individual’s petition sheets.

The petitions’ deadline will be 4 p.m. at the city auditor’s office on Friday, April 13.

For more information on the petition process and election, contact Nostdahl at (701) 228-3232.  

County Election:

Bottineau County has announced that petition circulation for the 2012 county election will start on Saturday, Jan. 14.

Two seats on the county commission board, along with three judgeships, will be on the election ballot. Verdean Kveum, District Four commissioner from Landa, and Jeff Beyer, District Two commissioner from Bottineau, currently hold the two seats on the county board.

Supreme Court Justice Daniel J Crothers, along with Northeast District judges, M. Richard Geiger and John McClintock, hold the three positions in the judicial branch.

Redistricting has taken place in Bottineau County and there will be some residents who will be voting in different districts. To learn which district voters will cast their votes, the Bottineau Courant has published the redistricting map in this issue of this newspaper. (Pages B7 and B8)

The deadline for county petitions will be Friday, April 13, at 4 p.m. at the county’s auditor office.
The county’s Primary Election will be June 12, while the general election will be Nov. 6.

For more information on the county election, contact Lisa Herbel, auditor of Bottineau County, at (701) 228-2225.