County Treasurer's Office vacancy might be filled by special election

In the wake of a special election September 24th to determine the Second Ward city council representative in the City of Decorah, a special election might be held to fill the job of Winneshiek County Treasurer, to succeed Wayne Walter, who is retiring October 4th.

The Winneshiek County Board will meet September 16th to decide whether it wants to appoint someone to the position.  It would then meet again October 7th to officially vote on any appointment.

If supervisors decide to appoint someone October 7th, citizens could circulate a petition calling for a special election to put the matter up to a vote.  County Auditor Ben Steines says, unlike in the Decorah 2nd Ward special election, the petition for County Treasurer would have to be signed by ten percent of the number of people who voted for Iowa Governor in 2018--or 988 signatures.

Walter's unexpired term runs through December 31st of 2022.  But someone appointed to the position would have to run again for re-election in 2020--this time for a two-year term.  If there's a special election, the winner would serve through 2022.

There's one way in which the Decorah 2nd Ward special election and the Winneshiek County Treasurer elections will be the same--it will just take some time to sort out the results.