Ballots short of candidates with many races uncontested

With the April 8 elections less than two weeks away, more than half of the races for city officials and school board members in Cape Girardeau County are unopposed or lacking enough candidates to fill vacancies.

Elections for the Cape Girardeau School Board, all Jackson city officials, mayor and Ward 1 alderman of Delta and the board of trustees in Oak Ridge are all unopposed.

Elections for the board of trustees and fire protection district board of directors in Gordonville, the fire protection district board of directors in Millersville and the board of trustees for Oak Ridge do not currently have enough candidates to fill vacancies.

County clerk Rodney Miller said vacancies are almost always filled with a write-in candidate on election day. If there are still vacancies, a person may be appointed to the position by whatever governing body has the vacancy.

"As far as the unopposed races go, my first conclusion is that people are satisfied with their current representative," Miller said. "Or, maybe there's not any conflict this year. Sometimes more people will file with there's a controversial issue."

Miller said the lack of candidates this year isn't unusual, especially in elections for rural areas.

"It's fairly typical to have open slots before an election," Miller said. "This year there haven't been any more than in previous years."

The races for mayor and four aldermen in Jackson are all unopposed. This year marks Jackson Mayor Paul Sander's fifth consecutive candidacy.

Out of those five terms, he has faced opposition in an election only twice -- during his first candidacy in 1993 and during the 1999 election.

Goes in cycles

"We've never had a lack of candidates in Jackson," Sander said. "As far as opposition goes, we seem to go in cycles. This year, we hope the reason there are no oppositions is people are satisfied with the direction the city has been going in."

In Gordonville, incumbent Sheila Gross was the only person to file for election to one of three vacancies on the five-person board of trustees.

"I'm not sure why no one else filed," Gross said. "I don't know if everyone is really, really busy and just don't think they'll have the time or what."

Gross said she has heard that there will be write-in candidates on election day. Board chairman Brad Burgess and trustee Cathy Maynard, whose terms expire this year, did not file for re-election. As for Gross, a desire to complete a sewer project in Gordonville influenced her decision to run again.

"I want to see the project we're working on finished," Gross said. "When you start something, you hate to leave in middle of it."

cclark@semissourian.com

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