Candidates file for county, state offices

By James Tilson

Staff writer

Mar. 22, 2018

MANTI—The candidates for county offices have officially declared their intentions by filing, and the filing period has ended for the elections to be held this fall.

Only one county seat will be contested, and that will be the Commissioner Seat A being vacated by Claudia Jarrett at the end of her term this year. Edwin Sunderland and Justin Atkinson both filed petitions for the seat, both as Republicans.

Sunderland is a prominent local farmer from Chester.

Atkinson works at Sunrise Engineering as a civil engineer. He also holds a seat as councilman in Mt. Pleasant.

Sunderland, contrary to what was previously reported, has indicated he will not be collecting signatures as part of his campaign, while Atkinson will continue to collect signatures. If Atkinson does not win the nomination at the county convention, he can still have his name placed on the primary ballot if he collects enough signatures.

Utah State House District 58, which covers most of Sanpete County and about a third of Juab County, has two Republican candidates as well.

Derrin Owens, the incumbent, and Claudia Jarrett, current Sanpete County Commissioner, will be seeking the Republican nomination for the seat.

Neither candidate has indicated they will be seeking signatures as part of their campaign, thus the decision of who will represent the Republican Party for the seat will be decided at the county party convention on April 19.

Democrat Lynn Zaritsky and Constitution Party Russell Hatch will be seeking the House seat for their respective parties. They will face the winner of the Republican convention nomination in the fall.

Although there is only one contested county seat so far, potentially interested persons have until Sept. 7 to register as a write-in candidate. If a person does not register as a write-in candidate by then, any votes cast for such person would not be counted.