There is officially a three-way race for the mayor’s chair in Princeton, as of Thursday morning with four days to go in the nomination period leading up to the municipal election October 20.
Mayor Frank Armitage filed his nomination papers last Friday, putting him on the ballot with Leona Guerster and Jim Manion.
On Thursday there were 12 people nominated for four councillor positions. Rosemary Doughty, Doug Pateman and Jerome Tjerkstra are declared as incumbent candidates, challenged by George Elliott, Neal Dangerfield, Tyler Willis, Barry Ovingting, Nick Goreas, Micheal Stafford, Chris Obey, Barb Gould and Bruce Barth.
Bob Coyne, director of Area H for the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen, is running for re-election, as are school board trustees Gord Comeau, Leah Ward and Dave Rainer.
Princeton CAO and chief election officer Cheryl Martens said Monday she expected a busy week as more people come forward.
A candidate training session hosted by the municipality recently attracted 23 people.
However she advised candidates not to wait until the last minute to file their nomination papers.
“I encourage people to come in early,” she said, acknowledging it can take ten to fifteen minutes for her to check nomination packages and make sure supporting signatures are legal.
Already she has had to send candidates away to get replacement signatures – for example when someone who is not on the voters’ list is a signatory.
The deadline for filing is Friday, September 14 at 4 p.m.
“If someone comes in at five to four and there is a problem with their paperwork they are not going to have time to do anything about it,” she said. “They will not get in.”
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