City candidates begin to file for council races in Linn County

CEDAR RAPIDS - Monday was the first day for City Council candidates in Iowa to submit their nomination papers to secure a place on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The window to submit papers with a designated number of signatures to the county auditor closes at 5 p.m. Sept. 17.

In Cedar Rapids, four of nine council seats are up for election, and incumbents in three of the four - at-large council members Ann Poe and Susie Weinacht and District 4 council member Scott Olson - are seeking re-election. District 2 council member Monica Vernon is running for Congress and isn't seeking re-election to the council.

To date, Carletta Knox-Seymour, a City Planning Commission member who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2013, and former council member Wade Wagner, who was defeated in a re-election bid in 2005, have announced that they will run for an at-large seat. Scott Overland, chairman of the planning commission, is running for the District 2 seat.

Overland filed his nomination papers Monday.

To make it on the ballot, a candidate in District 2 needs 93 signatures from within the district; a candidate in District 4 neeeds 72 signatures from within the district; and an at-large candidate needs 328 from anywhere in the city. The signature numbers equal 2 percent of those who voted for the office in the last election.

Next door in Marion, four of seven council seats, including mayor, are up for a vote.

Challenger Kay Lammers, a former council member, filed her nomination papers Monday for the Ward 3 seat held by Cody Crawford. Ward 3 candidates need 22 signatures.