Dunlap Mayor Dwain LandCandidates running for seats on the Dunlap (Tenn.) City Commission will have to follow a new election protocol that will require them to designate which seats they’re seeking.
Under an amendment to Dunlap’s charter that took effect Jan. 1, City Commission seats are now designated by letter – A, B, C and D – and candidates will have to designate which seat they’re running for. Previously, the top two vote-getters would get the seats each election year.
The amendment was proposed by Mayor Dwain Land’s administration.
“Candidates are still chosen at-large, but this way they’re not all running against each other, just the other people running for a particular seat,” Land said.
According to Land, everyone on the board of commissioners voted in favor of the amendment last August.
Jerrie Hickey, administrator of elections for Sequatchie County, doesn’t anticipate the new protocol to have much of an impact on her role.
“It shouldn’t affect my job in any way,” Hickey said. “It’ll just affect the candidates when they pick up paperwork to run.”
Jeff Johnson, the incumbent vice mayor of the city of Dunlap, already has picked up paperwork to run for re-election. His seat, B, as well as seat A, will be up for grabs in May, while seats C and D will be up along with the mayor’s seat in 2017. Johnson said the amendment doesn’t create any additional work for candidates other than designating the seat they’re running for, and he believes it will help voters.
“I think it will clarify the process for voters,” Johnson said. “In the past, a lot of people would go in thinking they had only one vote, so they would vote for that one person and no one else. By designating the two seats, it should be clear that every voter gets a vote for each seat.”
As the only municipality in Sequatchie County, the Dunlap City Commission is the only body affected by the amendment.
Contact Will Healey at whealey@timesfreepress.com, 423-757-6731, or on Twitter at @wfhealey.