Blackwell residents vote on non-partisan issue during tomorrow’s election

Blackwell residents will have another issue to vote on outside the primary ballot tomorrow. A petition was submitted by residents of the town to recall all but one of the City Commissioners. Residents feel their thoughts aren’t being heard by these commissioners, especially concerning housing codes. Cheryl Howard, Kay County Election Board Secretary said there are three commissioners under fire.

“Proposition 1 is Nita Carroll, Proposition 2 was Piccola Hudsonpillar and Proposition 3 is Brad Bechtel,” Howard said.

The town was also previously trying to recall Mayor Mark Cordell. His service to the city ended in the Mayor election earlier this year and he was replaced by Max Wirtz.

John Webb is the one commissioner who isn’t included in the recall.

Typically during a primary election voters must be registered as Republican or Democrat. However, since this recall is a non-partisan issue all Blackwell residents can vote regardless of party affiliation. Independent voters will only receive the recall ballot where they will vote “yes” to recall the three city commissioners or “no” to not recall. Voters who are declared with a party will receive the recall and primary election ballot.

Howard said the recall election results will be made public.

“We will tabulate the results of that election that night and they will be posted on the door of each polling place in Blackwell," Howard said. "We will also make them available to the media. At the end of the election, after all precincts have been read and votes tabulated we will give an unofficial total for the election on Tuesday night."

PoncaCityNow.com will have the unofficial results posted as soon as possible. Votes won’t be official until Friday at 5 p.m. after the election board meeting.