FAIRMONT– There are just a few days left before the Nov. 5 general election and whether people have voted early or are waiting until the day, they will be faced with a number of choices no matter where they live in Martin County.

A number of seats are open across different governmental bodies including municipalities and school districts and nearly all local races are contested.

Three of the five Martin County Commissioner seats are open and none of the current commissioners up for re-election are running.

Those running for District 1 are Michael Anderson and Kevin Kristenson. District 1 covers the cities of Fairmont (Ward 4-Precinct 2), Granada, Truman and the townships of Center Creek, East Chain, Fairmont, Nashville, Pleasant Prairie and Westford. Elliot Belgard has held the seat since 2012.

Joe Loughmiller and Michael Schutz are in the running for the District 3 seat, which covers most of Fairmont including Ward1-Precinct 1 and 2 and Ward 2-Precinct 1. The seat has been held by Kathy Smith since 2015.

Finally, residents in District 5, which covers the cities of Fairmont (Ward 4-Precinct-1), Northrop, Ormsby and Trimont and the townships of Cedar, Elm Creek, Fox, Fraser, Galena, Rutland and Waverley, can choose between Tyler Ask and Billeye Rabbe. Steve Flohrs has held the seat since 2013.

The city has Fairmont has four of the five city council seats up for re-election.

Those in Ward 4 can choose between incumbent Wayne Hasek and Todd Smith. Ward 3 will choose between incumbent Randy Lubenow, Edward Paschke, Terry Riggs and Tom Winter. Ward 2 residents have the option to select Amber Hansen, James Kotewa or Jodie Whitmore.

Finally, all citizens in Fairmont can vote for council member at-large. The options are incumbent Michele Miller, Britney Kawecki or Joe Kallemeyn.

Residents of Fairmont also have the opportunity to vote on a second local option sales tax that will fund the construction of an ice arena. The question on the ballot will read:

“Shall the City of Fairmont impose a sales and use tax of one-half of one percent (0.5 percent) for no more than 25 years or until $20,000,000 is raised, plus an amount equal to interest and the costs of the issuance of any bonds, to finance the construction of a community center and ice arena in the City?”

In Ceylon, the mayor is up for election and those seeking the seat include incumbent John Gibeau, Judith Perkins and Marvin Zehm. There are two seats on the council open and five candidates including Admin Kronback, Tiffany Marlin, Terry Muller, Thomas Plumhoff and Jody Scott.

In Dunnell Marlin Blister is the only person who filed for mayor but Jeremiah Heifner, Dean Janssen, Mary Petersen and Charlene Somnis filed for city council. There are two open seats.

There are two open seats on the Granada City Council and three people to choose from. They are Amber (Becker) Brandt, Andrew Rowan and Matt Schuster.

In Northrop there is an uncontested race with two open seats and two people– Steven Blaufuss and Tom Koertiz– who have filed.

Voters in Sherburn will chose between Doug Schroeder and Tucker Schumann for mayor. With two open seats on the city council, voters must pick from a pool of four including Ronnie Beckius, Richard Behne, Thomas G. Carruthers Jr. and Aaron Griese.

There are three people in the running for mayor of Trimont including Luis Cutting, Kevin Kuehl and JoAnn Russenberger. With just two open seats on the city council, there are seven people running to fill them. They are: Jo Ann Beaty, Mike Beaty, Bruce Borntrager, Brian Bush Krumwiede, Justin Lubben, Leisa Ram and Ronald Shade.

In Truman, no one filed for the open mayor seat but several have indicated that they are running as a write-in candidate. Chad Truax and Danielle Williams are running for the two open city council seats.

Kim Holm and Dan Schmidtke are running for mayor of Welcome and voters will decide between Eric Anderson, Jon Auringer and ElRoy Glidden for the two open city council seats.

As for area school districts, the race in Fairmont is uncontested with Dan Brookens, Nicole Green and Shayna Wolfe running for the three open seats.

The Granada-Huntley-East Chain School Board race is also uncontested with J.D. Goraczwoski, Ross Gronewald and Jessica Salic running for the three open seats.

In the Martin County West School District, there are nine people running for four seats. They are: Laura Borchardt, Andrew Krusemark, Dannielle Peters, Jeffrey Scholl, Tom Studer, Darren Thate, Bill Unterseher, Justin White and Mark Wohlhuter.

Voters in Most of Martin County will also have two choices for State Representative District 22A– incumbent Bjorn Olson or Marisa Ulmen. Those running for District 21B, which covers a portion of the county, are Jon Wilson and Marj Fogelman.

All voters in the county will have two choices for U.S. representative for District 1 as incumbent Brad Finstad and Rachel Bowman are in the running.

Those who want to see an example of what their ballot will look like prior to Election Day can find a sample on the Minnesota Secretary of State website at www.sos.state.mn.us under the elections and voting tab. People can find information on their polling place on the website, too.