Incumbents aim to keep seats on Manassas City Council

Incumbents are lining up to keep their seats on the Manassas City Council.

“On our Council, the following positions are up for the November election: Mayor, and three Council Members – Jonathan Way, Ian Lovejoy, and Mark Wolfe. The Council runs on a staggered election cycle every two years so that the entire Council is not up for re-election at the same time.” said Manassas City spokeswoman Patty Prince.

In addition to the current incumbents, Theresa Coates Ellis will be running for Council with the Republican Party and Michael Youlen will be running for Council as an Independent. Winners of the Primary from each party will move on to the General Election to campaign in November.

The primary to file for local offices will be held on June 14. The last day to register to vote for the primary will be on May 23rd. The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot in person will be June 11th and June 7 by mail.

The Manassas Primary has drawn the attention of new and upcoming candidates, with several more city and town elections in mind for the remainder of the year. Increasing interest has been shown with running for candidacy.

According to the Virginia Department of Elections, a candidate must meet the following requirements in order to run for office:

1. Qualified to vote for and hold the office sought
2. A resident of the Commonwealth for one year immediately preceding the election
3. A resident, by the time of filing, of the city or town in which he offers for election [or has an application for registration, transfer, or change of address on file in the general registrar’s office]
4. If he is seeking a district seat, a resident of the election district to be represented [or has an application for registration, transfer, or change of address on file in the general registrar’s office]

In addition, candidates  are required to file documents to run for  office  including a certificate of candidate qualification, a declaration of candidacy, a petition of qualified voters, a statement of economic interests, a statement of organization, and a primary filing fee.

The primary filing fee is required only for primary election candidates with the amount being 2% of the minimum annual salary of the sought position.

Prospective candidates running for mayor within cities will need 125 signatures of qualified voters. If they’re running for city council and city school board within cities, they will need 125 signatures of qualified voters within the election district.  The only exception drawn from the Virginia Department of Elections is if the “if the city election district contains 1,000 or fewer registered voters, petitions must contain the signatures of at least 50 qualified voters of the district\ward.”

In towns with 1,500 or fewer registered voters, no petition requiring signatures is necessary. However, if the town has more than 1,500 registered voters, than 125 signatures are required for at-large seats while 25 signatures are required for town district seats.

The deadline to turn in an application for candidacy in the General Election is June 14th; however, if candidates are running with a party affiliation, they will have to file earlier since they have to work with the party they are running with.