Century Cuts Special Election Qualifications Down To Just Three Days

September 23, 2023

The Town of Century has cut the qualification period to just three days next week for candidates that wish to seek the office of mayor or a town council seat in an upcoming special election.

ELECTION DATES

Ben Boutwell resigned as mayor on August 22. Then on August 28, Luis Gomez, Jr. resigned from his seat after being appointed interim mayor.

The special primary election will be held on Tuesday, October 17 in a contest with three or more candidates. If that necessitates a runoff, it will be held during the general election.

The general election in a contest with only two candidates will be held on Wednesday, November 1 (along with any necessary runoff).

CANDIDATE QUALIFICATION

Candidates may qualify from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Supervisor of Elections Office at 213 Palafox Place in Pensacola on Monday, September 25 through Wednesday, September 27 and at Century Town Hall from 9:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Monday, September 25. The qualification period in recent years has been a full week.

An registered voter in the Town of Century can qualify. A candidate for mayor must have resided in the town for six months prior to qualification date, but there is no previous residency requirement for council. The qualification fee for town council is $50; the qualification fee for mayor is $126.32.

The office of mayor pays $10,131.98 annually, while a council member is paid $3,714.92 each year.

The oath of office will be held on Veterans Day, Saturday, November 11 at 10 a.m.

VOTER REGISTRATION

It’s already too late for a resident of Century to qualify to vote in the October 17 primary. The deadline was September 18, one day before the town council voted to approve the election date.

For the November 1 general election, voter registration will close on Tuesday, October 3.

NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.

Comments

4 Responses to “Century Cuts Special Election Qualifications Down To Just Three Days”

  1. DB on September 23rd, 2023 9:17 pm

    Y’all ready for this? What is it, $40,000 for Christmas lights with covid money?
    Doesn’t ARPA stand for American Rescue Plan Act? Isn’t t that money from federal coronavirus state and local Fiscal Recovery Funds? Hmmmmm! Sounds like a misuse of funds to me?! Anyone from Century want to chime in here? R y’all not concerned?
    Do y’all not realize that these funds are supposed to be used for
    1. Public health and economic impacts
    2. Premium pay
    3. Revenue loss
    4. Investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure
    There are some other standards that need to be looked at before anyone decides what needs to be done if anything but, I would look into this further if you believe this needs to be looked at in a different manner that is being presented to y’all!
    Don’t y’all wonder why the mayor an interim mayor both resigned?
    Good luck y’all.
    Concerned citizen!

  2. Well on September 23rd, 2023 12:47 pm

    So yall sound like you think someone good would sign up if it was a week.
    NOT

  3. cf on September 23rd, 2023 8:41 am

    So Century continues to do things their own way, right or wrong. What has actually improved in this town? More commerce? New business growth. Infrastructure improvement driven by tax revenue? Instead you get ARPA funds being appropriated for Christmas lights. If it didn’t hurt the actual citizens of Century so badly it would almost be laughable.

  4. Thomas Paine on September 23rd, 2023 8:01 am

    Cutting the qualifying period doesn’t make Common Sense unless you’re a council and mayor that wants to stack the deck with Yes Men and Yes Women. Century continues its creep towards municipal oblivion with these politicians who make a mockery of democracy.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News