Runoffs possible in Cedar Rapids races

Get out your calculators.

It may be a bit of a challenge tonight to figure out who wins the two at-large City Council seats in today's election in Cedar Rapids.

Five candidates are running for the two seats. To win, a candidate must receive at least 25 percent of the vote (plus one vote). If more than two candidates surpass that level, the top two vote-getters win.

But if just one candidate surpasses that 25 percent level, a runoff election will be held Dec. 1. Today's second- and third-place finishers would face each other for the remaining seat.

Dec. 1 runoff elections also would be required in the mayoral and the District 1 and District 3 council races if no candidate there receives 50 percent (plus one) of the votes cast.

Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said Monday he isn't sure how many of the city's 87,189 registered voters will vote today.

Four years ago - the first election for the city's part-time council - saw 29.8 percent of the voters turn out.

But all nine council seats were on the ballot that year; this time only six are, and only five of them are being contested.

In 2005, 2,133 voters cast absentee ballots. As of Monday, about 1,200 people had cast absentee ballots from the 1,700 people who requested them, Miller reported.

At the top of the city's election ballot today is the mayor's race among Brian Fagan, at-large council member, Ron Corbett, vice president at trucking firm CRST Inc., and P.T. Larson, a project worker at ACT Inc.

Five candidates - none of them incumbents - are competing for the two at-large council seats. They are Robert Bates, Nick Duffy, Don Karr Jr., Aaron Saylor and Chuck Swore.

In the east-side District 1, incumbent Kris Gulick is being challenged by Tim Pugh and Ryan Russell.

In District 3, which has precincts in southeast, northwest and southwest Cedar Rapids, incumbent Jerry McGrane is battling Pat Shey, an at-large council member, and Kathy Potts.

In the west-side District 5, incumbent Justin Shields, a labor leader, is unopposed.