The year of elections

THOMPSON FALLS – On Thursday, January 9 the election season officially kicked off as candidates entered the Elections Office to file their declarations of candidacy.

The majority of Sanders County incumbents have filed for reelection for the 2014 year.

As of Tuesday morning six of the seven incumbents had filed.

County Commissioner Tony Cox filed for another six-year term for district 3, while Nichol Scribner filed for county clerk and recorder. Tom Rummel filed for Sanders County Sheriff again, while Kathy Harris filed for County Coroner. Robert L. Zimmerman filed for county attorney and Donald M. Strine filed for justice of the peace.

According to Sanders County Elections Clerk Bobbi Christenson, Judge Jim Manley would need to file if he wanted to retain his position as the 20th district court judge. Manley took over for Judge C.B. McNeil after his retirement. This position requires a six-year commitment.

So far the only county position where an incumbent has not re-filed is for county treasurer/superintendent of schools. Carol Turk had not announced her intent to file as of Tuesday morning.

As of now, no one has filed against any of the Sanders County incumbents.

As for state representatives Pat Ingraham reached her term limit, therefore, she cannot file as the state representative of HD-13. No one had filed for that position or for the position of HD-14 house representative that Nicholas Schwaderer currently obtains.

On a larger scope, Montana’s US Senator position is open as well as the US Representative position.

Candidates must file by March 10th in order to be printed on the ballot.

According to Christenson, if no one files for a local position, the county commissioners would be in charge of appointing someone.

Numerous committee personnel are also up for election, however, the Sanders County Elections Office is not in charge of those names. According to the Secretary of State Office, the elections office’s only responsibility is to ensure the names make it on the ballot.

Christenson said there may be a few changes to the different committees because of the new precincts. Since the precincts were condensed from 10 to 9, there might be a handful of changes.