The Polk County Primary Election for the District Commissioners, County Attorney, and County Sheriff is coming up in a couple of weeks on Tuesday, August 9. While the early filing period has passed back at the end of May, the county is still accepting entries for the late filing period to have eligible candidates be entered for the Polk County General Election on November 8, which is available from Tuesday, August 2 to 5:00 p.m. on August 16.
The early filing period for Polk County elections was from May 17 to 31, where the commissioners and other members who were up for election could file for their seats along with anyone else interested in running for their seats. However, due to the low number of people that filed for Districts 5, 4, and 2 Commissioner seats, they will not be included in the Primary Election, as there need to be at least three candidates filed to be included for the public to narrow them down to two. These districts seats only had one to two candidates filed. “For Commissioner District 5, we had Mark Holy filed, and he is running unopposed. For District 4, we had the incumbent Warren Strandell filed, in addition to Kurt Knutson, who had filed. For District 2, incumbent Joan Lee filed, in addition to Dennis Boucher, who filed for those particular seats,” Election Administrator Michelle Cote explained. “Polk County residents will see those races land on their ballot on the November 8 General Election. Upcoming for us is the August 9 Primary Election. We are currently in the middle of testing for all of our equipment and machines.” While the early filing period has passed, candidates can still enter or be entered as a write-in candidate for any of the county offices up for election, as long as they register as a write-in candidate by Thursday, November 3. Election Administrator Cote reminds everyone that the write-in candidate must be registered for it. Otherwise, they will not be tallied for the election.
All of the commissioner’s seats have a term of four years each, with the exception of District 5’s Commissioner Mark Holy, who is running due to redistricting his district, and he will run for two years. Similar to the Crookston School Board, the Commissioner seat cycle for which seats are up for election, with Districts 1, 3, and 5 being up for election again in November of 2024. In order to file an affidavit for the election, candidates must be an eligible voter, be at least 21 years old or older to run, and maintain residency for at least 30 days prior to November 8. They also must not be a registered sex offender or have any other outstanding criminal record to be qualified to run.
Absentee balloting is currently open for voters to cast their votes and ballots if they wish to cast their votes now or before election day. “Our absentee balloting, meaning that people can come in here and vote, opened on June 24, so anybody, regardless of what precinct they’re in, can come here to the Government Center and cast their ballot. Should they choose to or request an absentee ballot, we’re happy to send that out to them, so they don’t have to go to the polling place on Election Day,” Cote explained. “Anybody can come here to do that or mail that request to us prior to August 8, on August 9, they would then need to go to their polling place unless they are a mail ballot precinct.”
The Primary Election for Polk County will be held on Tuesday, August 9, and the General Election on Tuesday, November 8, with write-in nominations being accepted until Thursday, November 3. If you have any questions about becoming a candidate for any of the county positions up for election, you can contact Michelle Cote at recorder@co.polk.mn.us. To request an absentee ballot, you can call 218-281-3464.
To learn what district you can qualify for, the map of the County’s Districts can be seen below-
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