City Government
Boise Council Hopefuls Avoid Election
November 5, 2010 
On one hand it is nice to see so much interest from the 53 folks wishing to be appointed to the council seat being vacated by Vern Bisterfeldt, but on the other hand it is sad we can’t get viable candidates to run for election by the people.
Mayor Dave Bieter appeared on KBOI 670 radio today and discussed the vacancy, saying candidates will have to stand for election twice in the next two years or so according to statute. The lucky appointee will be able to run as an incumbent–something several other councilors have done. One of the applicants includes a former councilor who was voted out of office previously.
Ironically, if we had 53 candidates it would be possible for someone to get elected with a handful of votes. After a previous candidate got elected by a very small percentage of votes in a multi-candidate election, the Boise council passed an ordinance mandating a run off between the top two contenders if no one got a simple majority.
However, after the first run off race was held the winner urged his fellow councilors to repeal the majority requirement and they did.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Nov 5, 2010, 1:49 pm
Why are we going to be subjected to all this “posturing”? Any one with a brain knows that team dave will bring their buddy Jerome Mapp back. End of story!
Nov 6, 2010, 10:30 pm
Well shoot..whomever “Team Dave” picks it is gonna be BAD because “Team Dave” was the picker. Right guardian? At least, that is what i am learning from you.
EDITOR NOTE–You should learn not to prejudge.
Nov 12, 2010, 10:47 am
Hasn’t anyone ever heard of instant run off elections? This is how all elections should be done. It would have completely negated the fiasco that was the 2000 presidential election.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting