REVA BOWEN - North County Staff | Posted: Sunday, July 22, 2007 11:00 pm
With a field of 13 candidates competing for three four-year City Council seats, Orem will hold a primary election on Sept. 11.
The deadline to file for candidacy was July 16 . Candidates include incumbents Margaret Black and Mark Seastrand, as well as Steve Hemingway, Carl Hernandez, Duane Jacobs, Edward Lalone, Ron McDonald, Tom Fifita Sitake, Brent Sumner, Derek Whetten, Michael Whimpey, Gary Wise and Dan Wright.
The third open seat is held by Les Campbell. Campbell is finishing out a second four-year term and opted not to run for re-election.
"I do not consider myself to be irreplaceable," Campbell has said of his decision. "There are many, many good people in this community who could do service to the community as a City Council member, and I would hope that we would have lots and lots of applicants."
Seastrand and Black both came to their positions by appointment of the City Council. Seastrand was designated to fill the seat held by the late Doug Forsyth, who died in December of 2005, and Black was chosen in January of this year to take the place of Stephen Sandstrom, who was elected to the state Legislature.
The voting methods for September's primary and the general election on Nov. 6 will be different, said Orem city recorder Donna Weaver. For the primary, the system will be paper ballots with a centralized optical scan count. However, the final election will be conducted by Utah County because of the inclusion of the school voucher referendum, and will have the type of electronic equipment used last November.
"I'm hoping the biggest question our citizens will have is why we are doing different (systems) between our primary and our general elections -- not confusion on how to use the equipment," Weaver said.
If voters are not confident and feel intimidated by the electronic voting equipment, "they have the right to ask for a paper ballot," Weaver said.
One element that will not differ in the two elections is the polling locations.
"We are using the same polling locations the county is," Weaver said. "If a voter figures out where to be for the primary, they should be OK for the general election, too."
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.