No contest in council elections for Cape

The city of Cape Girardeau will pay thousands of dollars for an election in April to re-elect three councilmen who are running unopposed.

Patty Schlosser, Cape Girardeau County elections supervisor, said the cost to the city will be between $6,000 and $11,000. The latter figure assumes no other local government has an issue on the April ballot and costs wouldn't be split.

The filing deadline for the city council election ended at 5 p.m. Tuesday with only incumbents Jay Purcell of Ward 3, Hugh White of Ward 4 and Matt Hopkins of Ward 5 having filed for office.

But under Cape Girardeau's governing charter and state law, the city must hold a municipal election even if there are no contested races in any of the wards -- something that hasn't happened since the city began holding ward elections a decade ago. Prior to that, all council members were elected at large.

"It seems like a waste of money to pay for an election if there are no contested races," councilwoman Evelyn Boardman said during Monday's council study session.

The state does make exceptions for some elected positions.

In June, Gov. Bob Holden signed legislation adding school boards to the list of elected bodies that aren't required to hold elections when there are no contested races. The others are fire districts, road districts and county health departments.

The Missouri Municipal League explored the idea of adding city councils to the list during the last legislative session. But Richard Sheets, senior staff associate with the league in Jefferson City, said state lawmakers opposed the idea so his organization didn't pursue it.

Sheets said lawmakers didn't want to eliminate elections for "general-purpose governments."

Such a move also would have prevented voters from casting ballots for write-in candidates, Sheets said.

Mayor Jay Knudtson said the cost of any local election is an issue in tight budget times, but the lack of council races is unusual in Cape Girardeau.

He said he hopes there's a school board race in Cape Girardeau in April because it would lessen the cost to the city for holding the election. The filing period for school board runs from Dec. 16 through Jan. 20. Two seats are up for election.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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