BY TRACY LEE TATE
Special to the Times
LAKE BUTLER—Two Lake Butler City Commission seats will be up for election in June 2024, with both incumbents running to retain their seats on the board.
Mayor David Stegall plans to run for Seat One on the board again. This will be his second term if elected. Commissioner Rondoll Huggins will be running for his first full term – he has held the seat since a special election called in April 2023 to fill Seat Two, left empty by the resignation of Jack Schenck late in 2022.
The Lake Butler City Election will be held on June 25, 2024, at the Hal Y. Maines Community Center at the lake. The election will be administered by Union County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Osborne, using state-of-the-art electronic voting equipment to make the counting of the votes quick and accurate. At the last city election, there was a delay in getting the results while the ballots were hand-counted several times by election officials. This year, the board decided to go with the available technology, which will produce accurate results in less than an hour after the polls close. As a municipality in Union County, the city can use the services of the county elections office through an interlocal agreement, paying only the actual costs to that office for the service.
Anyone interested in running for either of the seats will need to keep some information and dates in mind. To run for a city office, a candidate must have been a registered voter in the City of Lake Butler for the past six months, so it is already too late for them to meet this requirement if they are not already registered. To vote in the election, a voter must register before 5 p.m. on May 28, 2024. Qualifying dates are from noon on April 15, 2024, until noon on April 19, 2024. Before qualifying, a candidate must file a Form DS-DE9, Appointment of Campaign Treasurer and Designation, before their campaign account may be opened, before the candidate spends any money on their campaign, and before they are allowed to collect petition signatures if choosing that option for qualifying. Candidates must also file a Form DS-DE84, Statement of Candidate, within 10 days of opening their campaign account. These forms are available at the Union County Supervisor of Elections office, 175 West Main St. in Lake Butler.
During the qualifying period, a candidate must pay a qualifying fee equal to one percent of the salary of a city commissioner ($10,674.56 salary, the fee is $106.75) and turn in either 20 signatures or pay an additional $25, all of which must be paid out of their campaign account. If using signatures, the candidate must pay the elections office office $.10 per name for signature verification, to be paid out of their campaign account. The candidate will also take a loyalty oath during the qualifying period. Before qualifying, a candidate must complete Form 6: Full and Complete Disclosure of Financial Interests online.
After completing the qualifying regimen, the candidate can receive contributions of no more than $1,000 per contributor and none less than five days before the election), make and post signs, and perform other normal candidate activities. They should keep up with their campaign treasurer and make sure that the required reports are made on time and that all campaign expenses are made out of their campaign account. Any questions can be addressed to the elections office in person or by phone at (386)496-2236.
