County Attorney free-for-all, one week left

The fate of one of the County’s top elected positions will be in the hands of voters that choose to write in a candidate’s name on their ballots this November.

The office of County Attorney will be vacated by Sam Vederman in December when he is appointed Judge of the La Paz County Superior Court by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. Vederman submitted his letter of resignation as County Attorney effective November 30th, 2012 and has withdrawn his name from the General Election of November 6th.

Since Vederman was unopposed, only write-in candidates will now qualify to run for the position of the County’s chief legal officer. These candidates will rely on voters writing their names on their ballots on November 6th. The portion of the electorate which chooses to do so is typically much smaller than those who vote by marking names on the ballot. This can lead to an ‘easier’ win for the candidate with the most votes, since a smaller number of write-in votes may be required to win than is the case when names are printed on every ballot.

The deadline for qualified individuals to submit themselves as write-in candidates for County Attorney is Thursday, September 27th. They must be a licensed attorney in good standing in the state of Arizona, and must not be federally funded in any way (per the Hatch Act).

No petitions are required to run. Potential candidates must file the nomination paper and some additional paperwork with the La Paz County Recorder’s Office before Thursday.

Quartzsite Town Attorney Martin Brannan has taken out a packet for County Attorney, joining Jessica Quickel [sic], Karen Hobbs and Steve Lundell in doing so.