Linn County supervisors to schedule Aug. 1 special election

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Linn County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Monday to set an Aug. 1 special election on how county supervisors are elected.

Rebecca Stonawski, deputy commissioner of elections with Linn County's Auditor's Office, said Friday the office had not received any challenges to a petition calling for a special election on the matter that was presented to the office last week.

With the petition unchallenged, the Board of Supervisors must approve a resolution setting the election, she added.

The board is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Monday at the Jean Oxley Public Service Center, 935 Second St. SW, Cedar Rapids.

Kevin Kula, of Coggon, submitted the petition on June 1, with about 12,800 signatures, more than the 11,710 - or 10 percent of the voters in the last countywide election - needed to force the vote.

'With that number of signatures, it would be very difficult to challenge,” Stonawski said.

In the election, voters will decide which representation plan they want to use for future Board of Supervisors elections.

On the ballot, voters will select from three options:

l The current representation plan, which sees voters in each district voting for a supervisor who lives in that district.

l For voters countywide to vote for supervisors who live within specific districts.

l To have all three supervisors elected at-large, with voters countywide voting on all the candidates and doing away with districts.

Whichever plan is selected in August must be in place for at least six years before it can be changed again.

Stonawski said absentee voting may begin later this month and early voting will take place at the Auditor's Office.

The office has not received any formal petitions calling for satellite early voting locations, but Stonawski said she has received some interest from the public. A petition seeking a satellite location - an early voting site other than the county's regularly scheduled polling places - needs 100 signatures to be filed, she said.

For the Aug. 1 election, Stonawski said it will likely take place among 80 polling locations. A few polling spots in the county's 86 precincts might be combined due to traditionally low voter turnout, she said.

The county Auditor's Office has estimated the election will cost between $225,000 and $250,000.

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com