Northwest Iowa — The combined city and school election is scheduled for this Tuesday, November 5th. Several candidates have their hats in the ring in various races.
In O’Brien County, in the community of Paullina, two people are vying for the mayor’s chair. Both John Ihle and Shawn Puhrmann have filed papers for the position. Four people are running to be on the Paullina council. Three seats are available. The candidates are Danita Patrick, Jay W. Jones, Lexy Murphy, and Jean A. Unrau.
In Sanborn, four people are vying for three seats on the city council. They are Alan Visser,
Brian Visser, Tim Devitt, and Aaron Wiekamp.
In Sheldon, two people want to be the First Ward rep on the city council. They are incumbent Pete Hamill, and challenger Kerwin Sterler. Two people also want to be the Council-at-Large rep. They are incumbent Wayne Barahona and challenger Fred Grein. Sheldon voters will also be asked to decide the future of natural gas and electric franchise agreements with MidAmerican Energy.
In Sutherland, seven people are running for three seats on the council. One of them is an incumbent — Bruce Engelke. Others running for slots on the council are Chase Cox, Devon Jones, Ron Kots, Patrick Nelson, Natosha Petitt, and Rebecca Webster.
On the school side, on the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn School Board, two people are running to fill a vacancy. They are Anthony Diehm and David Vander Broek.
In the South O’Brien District, both Sue E. McCauley and John Beck are vying for a director district-at-large position. But there are no candidates running for the District 5 seat, so the winner will have to be a write-in.
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In Sioux County, seven people are running for five seats on the Chatsworth City Council. They include incumbents Tyler Jurrens, and Clifford Puhl, as well as incumbent mayor Virgil Lidgett. (an incumbent council member is running for Lidgett’s seat, unopposed.) Other candidates running for the available council positions include Gregory Alan Arens, Robert Baker, Ashley Barr, and Russell Ray Gray.
In Ireton, four people are running for three available seats on the council. Incumbents Kevin Eisma, Dawn Mueller, and Craig Peterson will be joined on the ballot by challenger Verla Van Sloten.
In Orange City, two people want to be the mayor. They are incumbent Deb De Haan and Kurt Korver. For the Orange City Council, there are three seats available. Incumbents Daron De Jong and Tony Vande Brake will face challengers Aaron Beadner, Perry Borchard, Lisa Burg, and James Vondrak.
On the Sioux Center City Council, three people are running for two seats. They are incumbent Eric Moerman, Cary Bandstra, and Dale Vander Berg.
One school district in Sioux County has a contested race. That’s the Rock Valley Community School District, where incumbent Jerry Kelderman and challengers Stacy Remmerde and Mike Suter will run for the two available seats.
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In Lyon County, there are four contested races in city council and mayor races.
In Doon, four people are running for two available city council seats. Candidates include incumbent Nathan Van Beek and other candidates Joe Munoz, Mitch Van Engen, and Michelle McLaughlin-Koedam.
In George, two people want to be mayor — incumbent James L. Cuttell and challenger John Henry Vivian. There are six people vying for three seats on the council. They are incumbents Norm Riemersma and Ande Bruinsma; and other candidates Cory Nagel, Kathryn Fox, Warren Tiedeman, and Stacy Denekas.
In Larchwood, there are three seats up for election, and five people to fill the seats. Incumbents Brian Meffert, Tanner Tracy, and Ted Underberg will face challengers Candie Medema and Holly Horstman.
On the school board side, at Central Lyon, there are three school board seats up for election and four candidates. Incumbents David Jans, Joel De Wit, and Andy Koob will face a challenge from Cassandra Downard.
The other contested school board race in Lyon County will see three people vying for one position on the George-Little Rock School Board. They are Allison Sandbeck, Austin Lloyd, and Paul Denekas.
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In Osceola County, one of the Ashton council positions will have to be filled via write-in.
For the Melvin City Council, three people are running for two seats. They are incumbents Christopher Michelson and Amy Baker, and challenger John McDougall.
Two council members will have to be elected via write-in at Ocheyedan.
A write-in candidate will also be the winner of one of the Sibley City Council positions — that is the Ward 2 rep. Two people are running for the at-large seat. They are Lynelle Thiner and James Sembach Jr.
And on the school side — for Sibley Ocheyedan District 5, two people are running for the District 5 seat. They are Kristen Beyer and Roxanne Hayenga.
Sample ballots are available for you to look at. County auditors remind you that since this is a combined election, if you live in a town, you’ll have to find the ballot with both your appropriate city races and your appropriate school races. If you live out-of-town, you need to find the ballot with only the appropriate school races on it. When you get to the polls, however, that’s all automatic, and they’ll give you the ballot that you need to vote on, based on your address.
Election officials tell us that some polling places may not be where you expect them to be for this kind of election. They tell us state law has changed and the location for this election will be the same place that you would go for a presidential election, even though we are not selecting a President this year.
The polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.
Click here to find your polling place.
Click here for sample O’Brien County Ballots.
Click here for sample Sioux County Ballots.
Click here for sample Osceola County Ballots.
Click here for sample Lyon County Ballots.
