Nov. 5 school, city elections combined

The Tuesday, Nov. 5 city and school board elections are just a few days away. 

Beginning this year, after the Iowa Legislature made changes to the state law, both the school board and city official elections will be combined in an effort to increase the amount of people voting in school board candidate elections. These elections will take place in November of odd-numbered years. (School board elections were previously held in September.) 

To make things easier on Jones County voters, County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections Janine Sulzner spent much time working to combine polling places, ultimately reducing the number of polling locations. Jones County had 14 general election precincts. Now, there are eight.

Voters will also no longer cross county boundaries for school and city elections. Sulzner gave an example: previously Delaware, Dubuque and Linn County voters crossed into Jones County to vote in Monticello school board elections. Likewise, Jones County voters crossed into Linn, Cedar and Dubuque counties to vote in Lisbon, Mount Vernon, North Cedar, and Western Dubuque school elections and Cascade city elections. 

“This prohibition of crossing county boundaries is required by recent legislative change,” said Sulzner. 

In last week’s Express, we published questionnaires from all six candidates running for city offices in Monticello. The list of city candidates includes: 

• Brian Wolken, mayor 

• Brenda Hanken, incumbent, council at-large

• Steve Hanken, council at-large 

• Chris Lux, incumbent, council ward 3 

• Candy Langerman, incumbent, council ward 2 

• Brandon Hunter, council ward 2 

• The council ward 1 seat remains open. 

The candidates for Monticello school board remain unopposed: 

• Amanda Brenneman 

• John Schlarmann 

Polling places 

The following are the polling places throughout Jones County. All polling sites will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

• Monticello, includes wards 1-4 and Castle Grove and Lovell precincts, Berndes Center. 

• Anamosa, includes Anamosa North, South, Cass, Jackson, and Fairview precincts, Lawrence Community Center. 

• Greenfield, includes the City of Martelle and Greenfield precinct, Martelle Fire Station. 

• Oxford, includes City of Oxford Junction and Oxford precinct, Oxford Junction Fire Station. 

• Richland/Washington, includes the Jones County portion of Cascade and Richland and Washington precincts, Cascade EMS Center. 

• Rome/Hale, includes cities of Morley and Olin and Rome/ Hale precinct, Olin School Community Meeting Room. 

• Scotch Grove/Madison/Clay, includes City of Onslow and Scotch Grove/Madison/Clay precincts, Onslow Community Room. 

• Wyoming, includes City of Wyoming and Wyoming precinct, Wyoming Memorial Hall.