By Lucky Kidd
Beyond legislative races, most voters in the Golden Belt will face uncontested races on their local ballots Tuesday. There are write-in campaigns involving two area sheriffs who lost in their respective Republican primaries, some city races, and special questions on the ballot in two areas.
Incumbent Pawnee County Sheriff Scott King, who lost in the August primary to Larry Atteberry, is waging a write-in campaign to retain his office. In Rice County, current sheriff Bryan Evans is also conducting a write-in campaign after losing to Nicholas Sowers in the primary.
Otherwise, voters in Barton, Edwards, Pawnee, Stafford and Rush counties will not have any contested races on the ballot Tuesday. Rice County does have a contested race for County Commission 3rd district.
In terms of city races, the most crowded ballot in the area will be Lyons, where three candidates are running for Mayor, and there are contested races for three of four City Council seats up this year. In two, incumbents did not seek re-election and a third faces a challenger. Ward 1 in Lyons will be filled by write in as the incumbent did not seek another term and nobody else filed. There is also a contested race for City Commission in Sterling.
City elections are also being held in Great Bend, Ellinwood and Hoisington. The only race that is contested in those cities is for Ward 1 on the Great Bend City Council where incumbent Lindsey Krom-Craven is being opposed by Gary Parr.
There are also city elections in LaCrosse and McCracken, with the only contested race involving an unexpired term on the LaCrosse City Commission where Gabriel Proffitt faces Alan Sramek.
