General municipal election Nov. 3

Lincoln County’s general municipal election, which will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3, features six races but only two of the races are contested.

The four uncontested races are council seats in Rexford, Troy and Libby and the town judge for Eureka. 

In Eureka, Stormy Langston is the only candidate for the four-year term of town judge. Kathleen Madaio and Bill Marvel are the two candidates on the ballot for Rexford’s town council. As there are two seats available and no write-in candidates have filed, this is an uncontested election. The same situation applies in Troy, where Joe Arts and Crystal Denton are the only filed candidates for the two open council seats, and for one seat in Libby, where Dejon Raines is the only candidate to have filed to fill the unexpired term of former council member Robin Benson.

The two contested elections are for Eureka’s town council and for the three four-year seats on Libby’s city council.

In Eureka, voters will choose two council members from three candidates on the ballot. Rosalie Adauto, Kevin Jefferies and Gregory Thompson are the three candidates registered for the election.

In Libby, nine candidates have filed for the three seats up for election. The candidates are Gary Beach, Joseph E. Johnston, Arlen (Arly) Magill, Joe A. Miller, Allen J. Olsen, DC Orr, Doug Roll, Peggy Williams and Brian Zimmerman.

Voters will select three candidates from the nine, with the top three vote recipients being declared the winner.

Because no write-in candidates registered prior to the established deadline, only the total number of write-in ballots will be counted, but write-ins for specific candidates will not be tabulated. 

“The only time a write-in would be counted is if someone files the official paperwork with this office when there are official candidates on the ballot,” said Lincoln County’s assistant election administrator Leigh Riggleman. “We would count write-ins for those who have not filed only if there were no official candidates registered. In this case, there are no offices that are blank on the ballots and the deadline for filing for write-in has passed. The ballot counter will register that a write-in has been cast, but no, we don’t when we have official candidates on the ballot.”

Riggleman said it is important for voters to understand how many votes they should cast in each race. If there are too many names marked in a race, that vote in that race will be disqualified, although voting for fewer candidates than the maximum number is allowed.

“If a voter votes more than the allowed number, then that race will not be counted,” Riggleman said. “If a voter votes less than the number allowed, then the vote will be counted.”

Ballots for Eureka, Rexford and Troy were sent to voters for return by mail. As Libby’s City Council opted to not allow vote by mail this year, the Ponderosa Room at City Hall has been selected as the polling place. Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.