Those who live within a municipality in Winston County and wish to run for a mayoral or alderman position qualifying began Monday, January 4 at 8 a.m.
This year the qualifying time is one month shorter than in years past. Candidates have only 25 business days to qualify, with the cut off being Friday, February 5.
The general election will be Tuesday, June 8.
Winston has two municipalities which include: Louisville and Noxapater.
Louisville has four wards and one alderman at large. In Noxapater, there are no wards, all candidates qualify in general from their township.
As of Monday, January 4, Roger Caperton had qualified as Alderman-At-Large for the city of Louisvlle. Frances Ball who held the Alderman At Large post since 1977 died December 15, 2020 of COVID-19.
All Louisville city elections for each ward will be held at the Louisville Coliseum.
If only five people qualify to run for the aldermen posts and the mayor has no opponent, no elections will be held. Those that qualify will be sworn in before the first Tuesday meeting in July.
General Qualifications
The following are general qualifications to run for these offices. You must be a registered voter of the state of Mississippi and in the municipality you are seeking office for.
You must have lived in the municipality for two years prior to this except for those townships that have less than 1,000 residents.
You must never have been convicted of bribery, perjury or other crime punishable by a minus of one year of confinement in the state penitentiary unless you were pardoned for the offense.
You must never have been convicted of a felony in Mississippi or a crime in another state that is deemed as a felony in Mississippi.
How to qualify
If you are seeking office you can qualify with a political party or as an independent.
Party candidates qualify by submitting a statement of intent for party nomination with a $10 qualifying fee to the city or town hall of the municipality in which you are running by Friday, February 5, 5 p.m.
If you wish to qualify as an independent you must go to the town hall and get a qualifying petition and get it signed by at least 50 registered voters from the municipality or the ward in which you are seeking office if it contains more than 1,000 residents. For wards or municipalities that have fewer than 1,000 residents only 15 are required for your petition. This has to be filed with a Qualifying Statement of Intent for an Independent Candidate by Friday, February 5, 5 p.m.a
