Incumbent filing deadline Feb. 18

    Incumbent office holders wanting to file for re-election must do so prior to the Tuesday, Feb. 18 deadline to appear on the May 12 Primary Election ballot.
    Normally, the deadline is Feb. 15. However, Feb. 15 falls on a Saturday and Monday, Feb. 17, falls on the Presidents’ Day holiday so incumbents get until Feb. 18.
    Non-incumbent office filers will get a one-day deadline reprieve to Monday, March 2. The normal March 1 deadline falls on a Sunday so the deadline is automatically extended one day.
    Thus far, the only local incumbents to file have been Wauneta-Palisade school board member John Juttyn and Harry Merrihew for NRD.
    The District 1 county commissioner seat is the only  county office up for election in 2020.
    Chuck Vette of Wauneta is the incumbent.
    Other incumbents up for election include (all terms four years unless noted):
    Imperial City Council—Doug Gaswick, Johna Jablonski.
    Imperial Airport Authority—Jim Haarberg.
    Depending in what school district a county resident lives, county voters will cast ballots for their respective districts:
    Chase County School Board—Josh Fries, Carrie Terryberry, Willy J. O’Neil, Karl E. Meeske, Sheila Stromberger.
    Wauneta-Palisade School Board—Jon Anderjaska, John Jutten, Jason Hicks (vacated seat).
    Perkins County School Board—Jayson Bishop, Larry Pritchett, Angie Patrick.
    Upper Republican NRDboard Subdistrict 3—Kerry Bernhardt; Subdistrict 5—Harry Merrihew; Subdistrict 7—Tom Terryberry.
    Janice Stroup of Benkelman has filed for re-election to Subdistict 1 and Tom Schroeder of Grant has filed for re-election in Subdistrict 9. These subdistricts do not appear on Chase County ballots.
    Mid-Plains Community College Board of Governors—District 2, Jo Etta Brown; At-Large, Ted Klug, Jr. Brown has filed for re-election.
    Filings for NRDs and community colleges must be done with the Nebraska Secretary of State.
    The incumbent filing deadline for the Wauneta and Lamar village boards and the Imperial Public Power District does not occur until July 15, with the non-incumbent filing date at Aug. 3.
    Incumbents in Wauneta include Rick Einspahr and Bob Goings. There are no incumbents for Lamar. The election for these offices occurs in the General Election Nov. 3.
    With 2020 being a leap year, that also means this is a presidential election year.
    In addition at the federal level, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse is up for re-election for a six-year term. Challengers include Republican Matt Innis, Libertarian Eric Dilliard and Democrats Chris Janicek, Dennis Macek, Angie Philips and Alisha Shelton.
    All U.S. House representatives are up for election. Third District incumbent Adrian Smith is being challenged by Republican Larry Bolinger.