Election filing deadline nears
The filing deadline for candidates hoping to win a seat on the McCreary County Board of Education or Soil and Water Conservation District in the 2016 General Election is less than a month away.
To be considered on the ballot for the only two local races to be contested this fall, all prospective candidates must file with the County Clerk’s office by 4:00 p.m., Tuesday August 9.
To date, only one local candidate has registered with County Clerk Eric Haynes’ office but others may soon follow.
The first candidate to file for the General Election is Kevin A. Taylor, of Whitley City, who has filed for the District 5 School Board seat.
The incumbent in that district is Debbie Gibson, who won her 2012 election against Johnny Barnett by virtue of a tie-breaker after the vote tallies ended in a dead heat.
Other School Board seats up for election this year include Districts 1 and 3.
Gibson has indicated to the Voice that she does intend to file for re-election.
The District 1 incumbent, Nelda Gilreath, has served on the Board for the past two terms. Gilreath told the Voice that she intends to file for re-election to her potential third term.
District 3’s representative, Roxanne Shook, is completing her first full term after winning the 2012 election, and being appointed to the seat in 2011. She has not yet replied as to her intentions to file for a second term.
Four Soil and Water Conservation Supervisor seats are up for re-election as well.
In 2012 Bradley Coffey Jr., Peg Taylor, Anthony Trammell and Coby Stephens were each elected to their first term in that office.
On Election Day the most attention will certainly be focused on the race for President.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump will face off against the Democrat’s front-runner Hillary Clinton. Trump won the Kentucky Republican Caucus earlier this spring, besting his leading opponent Ted Cruz by about 9,000 votes, but pulled 54 percent of all McCreary County votes in the Caucus.
Clinton edged Bernie Sanders by less than 2,000 votes in Kentucky’s May Primary Election, but Sanders won the McCreary County vote by almost 10 percent.
Other races contested this November will be U.S. Senator Rand Paul fighting against Democrat challenger Jim Grey, the Mayor of Lexington.
U.S. Representative Hal Rogers easily won his May Primary against his challenger, and faces no opposition from the Democrats in the fall.
Similarly, Kentucky Representative Ken Upchurch was unopposed in the spring, and is again without a challenge in the fall election.
The last day to register to vote in the November 8 General Election will be Tuesday, October 11, and the final day for any write-in candidate to file will be on October 28.
