Filing period opens for school board election

School board candidates filing by petition and write-in candidates can begin to file their paperwork with the Garland County clerk’s office on Wednesday.

The 77-day mark before the annual school election on Sept. 19 falls on Tuesday. The filing period will open on Wednesday due to the July 4 holiday.

Candidates filing by petition must file their petition, political practice pledge and affidavit of eligibility with the county clerk. Petitions must contain the signatures of at least 20 registered voters who are residents of the school district. Write-in candidates must file notices of intent to be a candidate, pledge and affidavit.

Both filing periods will end at noon on July 11. School districts must notify the county by July 11 of any intent to hold a millage vote during the September election.

Applications for absentee ballots must be available by July

21, ballots must be provided to the county clerk’s office by Aug.

3 and delivered by Aug. 4. Polling sites must be determined by Aug. 20, 30 days prior to the election.

The deadline to apply to register to vote in the election is Aug. 21. Early voting will be available Sept. 12, Sept. 13-15 and Sept. 18. Polls will be open on election day from 7:30 a.m. to

7:30 p.m.

Only one seat on the seven Garland County public school districts was contested in 2016 despite 10 openings. Nine seats are up for election in September.

The term for Position 2 on the Hot Springs School Board will expire in September. Debbie Ugbade won re-election to the seat in 2014 to a fifth consecutive three-year term.

The Position 1 seat is currently held by Karen Reese. She was reappointed to the board in December after the death of longtime board member Nathaniel L. “Bob” Freeman in November.

Freeman was re-elected to the board in 2016. The elected candidate will serve the final two years of Freeman’s term. Ann Hill was unopposed for another three-year term in the Position 4 seat.

Two at-large positions will be up for election on the Fountain Lake School Board in September. Board President Greg Frank and Sheila Ford, vice president, are concluding their three-year terms after they were unopposed in 2014.

Charles Williams’ term in the Position 4 seat on the Jessieville School Board will expire in September. He has served on the board for 15 years.

According to the Garland County clerk’s office, Cutter Morning Star School Board President Mark Rash’s term for Position 2 expires this year. Rash was elected to a five-year term in 2012, left the board temporarily and was unopposed when he ran to return to the board in 2015.

Mountain Pine School Board President Clayton Miller’s term in Position 5 ends this year. He was unopposed in his first two elections in 2007 and 2012.

Lake Hamilton School Board President Mike Tucker was also unopposed in 2007 and 2012. His term for the seat in Position 55 ends in September.

The five-year term of Will Maffit, vice president of the Lakeside School Board, will close in September.

A new law will modify the dates of school board elections in future years. Districts will be able to choose between holding elections with the preferential primary in the spring or the general election in November. Filing deadlines will correspond with the new election dates and polling sites will be the same as the primary and general elections. The bill became Act 910 of 2017.