Six council candidates to date
There are three council seats up for election this August. Each seat has a four year term. To date, six people have filed to fill these seats
Yesterday, Mayor Winfield announced that he is seeking reelection for Mayor. He also announced that three incumbent council members, Council Members Melanie Barrett, Joyce Jones-Ivey, and Josh Nicolson will seek reelection.
That brings to six, the number of council candidates. The other three candidates are former Council Member Bill Rodman; Charlie Hurt who Chairs the town's water commission; and Joseph Erceg, President of the Sahuarita Chamber of Commerce.
This should make for an interesting election season. Announcing does not mean that they are on the ballot. Here's what they will be doing over the next two plus months to make that so...
The candidates will...
Get a "Candidate Handbook"
The first step they will do is to go to the town clerks office to get a "2022 Candidate Handbook". That handbook has everything they need to know to enter into the election process.
Candidates are required to file a "Candidate Statement of Interest" form. This is part of the candidate handbook and can be completed when the candidate picks up the handbook. This is an important step because they cannot obtain signatures until they file this statement of interest.
Solicit nomination petition signatures
The third step of the election process is to get at least 429 and not more than 858 signatures from qualified Oro Valley electors (registered voters). There are two ways to get signatures: One is in person; the other is online.
Complete a "Financial Disclosure Statement"
Candidate are required to submit a "Local Public Officers Financial Disclosure Statement." This document is rather lengthy but also rather straightforward and simple to fill out if you've been playing things "straight up financially" in your life.
Submit the nomination petitions and the financial disclosure statement to the town clerk
The deadline for submitting these documents is Monday, April 4, 2022 by 5 PM.
Town clerk will review materials for technical compliance only
The town clerk looks at the filed materials to make sure that they are in technical compliance with requirements. For example, each petition page must have the correct "disclosure" on the back.
The town clerk does not perform a review of the signatures to determine if those who signed are qualified Oro Valley electors. There is no organization that routinely checks the validity of signatures:
"The town clerk has neither the right nor the duty to determine whether signers of the nomination petitions are qualified electors."
The election season gets into "full swing" after April 4
Campaign fundraising starts, if it has not already. Signs go up. Forums happen... and more. All leading up to the August 9 election. Keep reading LOVE to learn the latest.
