Three Posts on City Ballot Is New Circumstance

The Sallisaw Board of City Commissioners has never been without a quorum, according to research done by the Sequoyah County Election Board.

The question was posed because Tuesday’s Sallisaw election has three of the five city commission posts on the ballot.

Cindy Osborn, election board secretary, was asked to search records to determine if the city commission ever had three seats open in an election in the past. Osborn said she was able to search back about 10 years, in the records available, and was unable to find any election in which three city commissioners were to be elected.

In Tuesday's election, Sallisaw voters will choose commissioners for Wards 2 and 4, and a mayor, who is actually a commissioner at large. The Wards 2 and 4 elections are both for three-year terms and are up for regular election, while the mayoral election is for a two-year unexpired term.

Osborn explained that, in the past, when a commissioner chose not to run for re-election, that commissioner remained in the post until replaced in an election.

She also explained that if a city commissioner resigned or left the post immediately, another commissioner is usually appointed as a replacement until an election can be held for that post.

In both cases, the commission continued with enough commissioners to have a quorum.

And, in many cases Osborn said the records reveal, it was very seldom that an election was called for because the commissioner seeking re-election had no opponent. Many have been unopposed so that no election was needed.

Osborn said about 40 voters have cast ballots during early voting in this year’s city election. Because there are candidates for all three posts, it is expected there would be a higher voter turnout, she said.

Don't forget to get out and cast your vote on Tuesday, February13th and as always The Mix 105.1 will be bringing you live election results as well as posting the results on our Facebook page.

Sally Maxwell, Senior News Director

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