Supervisor candidates invited to forum

Creston News Advertiser, KSIB Radio and Creston Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring a forum of the four candidates for the two Union County Board Supervisor seats on the June primary ballot.

The forum will be held at 7 p.m., Thursday, May 9, at the Southwestern Community College Allied Health Building. Panther TV will livestream the event. Go to youtube.com and search for Panther TV-Creston High School.

The candidates are incumbents Dennis Brown and Rick Friday and contestants Tom Spencer and Bill Oetken. All are on the Republican ticket.

The primary election results will be a factor in determining who the two leading candidates are. According to Iowa Code under these circumstances, the top two candidates must each receive at least 35% of the total number of votes cast to be declared a winner.

If the ideal voter results don’t happen, the Union County Republican party must convene and determine the winners by their processes.

“It’s important we have a strong turnout of voters to help us reach those numbers,” Union County Auditor Sandy Hysell said about the June 4 primary election. Her office oversees elections.

Whoever does not win in June can’t file again later this year as an unaffiliated candidate to be on the November ballot.

Hysell said voters can request an absentee ballot. Those ballots will be mailed beginning May 15. Ballots must be returned no later than June 4 to be counted.

At the forum, each candidate will make an opening statement. After the opening statements prepared questions will be asked to each candidate. No rebuttal will be allowed unless a specific candidate is named and then that candidate will have one minute to respond. The final segment of the forum will be a closing statement from each of the candidates.