ALTON, IA -
This time of year you're probably more concerned with Christmas presents and holiday cheer than elections, but folks in Alton, Iowa were heading to the polls Tuesday.
Voters in Alton tried to fill an open city council seat in November. None of the three candidates got a majority vote, which is putting the city in an expensive situation.
It's past election season, there's snow on the ground, but folks in Alton, Iowa are heading to the polls.
"I looked back in our records, back into the mid 90's and we've never had this situation," says Dale Oltmans, Alton's City Administrator.
The City was having a runoff election Tuesday. When folks voted to fill a city council seat back in November, none of the candidates received a majority, which means the top two vote getters are in the running again.
Another election this late in the season can be bad news, low voter turnout's a problem, by noon Tuesday there were still less than 50 votes cast.
"A lot of people just aren't thinking about it anymore," says Lisa Rowenhort, Sioux County's Election Administrator. "We're in December they're focusing more on the holidays and the end of the year more so than a special election."
Then there's the cost. Advertising's expensive, and so is paying election workers a second time. November's election cost the city more than $1,600.
"So now we'll have to pay that amount of money again, which, you know, for a population of 1,200 it's over a dollar a person," says Oltmans.
All of that means this could be the city's last runoff election.
"More and more cities, at least in Sioux County that were under the runoff ordinance, when this comes up then they're aware of it and they will usually change their city ordinance after an election like this to cut costs to the city," says Rowenhort.
To address the cost and inconvenience, Alton's City Council will discuss the runoff ordinance at its meeting coming up on December 13th.
If the City Council decides to change the ordinance, one option would be changing to a system where there is only one election in November and the top vote getter wins.
