The 2019 Greenbelt City Council campaign season is about to begin. In just a little more than two weeks, both incumbent and challenger candidates will begin circulating petitions and filing papers to qualify as candidates and have their names placed on the ballot for the Tuesday, November 5, Greenbelt City Council election.
Candidate packets containing all the necessary information and forms for running for office will be available at City Clerk Bonita Anderson’s office in the Municipal Building, 25 Crescent Road, beginning Monday, August 19. The filing period ends promptly at 5 p.m. on Monday, September 23.
Eligibility
Until this year, any qualified voter of the city could run for city council. A qualified voter is a resident of the city who is duly registered to vote with Prince George’s County at a Greenbelt residence address. The eligibility requirement has changed slightly this year because the city has lowered the qualified voting age to 16- and 17-year-old residents who are duly registered. The minimum age for running for office, however, continues to be 18.
Every Vote Counts
The city council has seven members, all of whom are elected at large for two-year terms. Greenbelt has no wards or districts and each voter may vote for up to seven candidates. Elections are nonpartisan.
Greenbelt has a council-manager form of government and it does not hold a separate contest for the office of mayor. Both the mayor and mayor pro tem are elected by the city council. While the council may elect whichever of its members it chooses to fill these positions, it traditionally elects the two members who receive the highest and secondhighest number of votes from residents voting in the biennial election.
Voters sometimes think it is not worthwhile to vote if it appears to be a foregone conclusion who will be elected to the city council. In this case, however, when the positions of mayor and mayor pro tem will almost surely be decided by the electorate’s votes, it is no exaggeration to say that in city elections every vote counts.
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