LCC School Board to get some new members

LAUREL – The Laurel-Concord- Coleridge School Board will see some new faces around the table as two incumbents decided not to file for re-election.

Samuel Recob and Dustin Thompson have expiring board terms and did not file by the incumbent deadline last week, while Carol Erwin, board president, filed to retain her seat.

Any new candidates have until Friday, March 1, to file for a board seat with the Cedar County Clerk’s Office.

School board races will appear on the May primary ballot.

At the city government level, Chad Johnson is relinquishing his seat on the Laurel City Council while City Councilman Justin Eriksen and Mayor Keith Knudsen both filed to keep their spots.

As of Tuesday morning, no new candidates had filed in the city council race.

All village board races such as those in Belden and Magnet will appear on the general election ballot only and so those filing deadlines are later this summer.

The general election is set for Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Residents can look up their voter registration or register to vote online through the Nebraska Secretary of State website, sos.nebraska.gov/ elections/elections-division. There is also a form online or in person at the Cedar County Clerk’s Office.

The Secretary of State indicates there are more than 1.2 million registered voters in the state – more than 600,000 registered Republicans; more than 330,000 registered Democrats; 18,000 Libertarians; 5,000 for the Legal Marijuana NOW party and more than 260,000 who vote nonpartisan.

In 2022, Nebraska voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring voter to show ID. In June 2023, the governor signed into law LB514, the bill putting voter ID into effect.

Educational materials on Voter ID indicate voters should write their driver’s license or state ID number on the ballot return envelope or enclose a copy of their valid photo ID with their ballot.

Ballots are mailed 20 days prior to election to all registered voters in the county.