Majority vote for elected officials makes it way to the city council meeting

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - While campaigning to become mayor, Jason Salamun heard from community members who want city officials to be elected by a clear majority.

Currently, city officials just need the most votes to win office, but a proposed ordinance would change that.

The ordinance would require 50 percent plus one vote for a candidate to win their position.

At the city’s Legal and Finance Committee meeting Wednesday, after some debate, council members voted unanimously to move the ordinance forward to the city council meeting Monday.

When asked about the debate between council members, Salamun said, “I think healthy debate is good. Rarely do you have an item like this that the whole council will agree on.”

After hearing about this concern, Salamun brought it to the Legal and Finance Council meeting. Salamun said this idea wasn’t on his original platform when running for mayor, but decided to add it when the community continued to bring it up.

“I think it is better if the community as a whole, the majority of the community vote for you. Obviously, I was in a five-way race, we had five candidates for mayor, and I’ve been in other multi-person races. But I think its always helpful to the community when the majority elects you in,” Salamun continued.

Salamun won the mayor’s race with just 32% of the votes and said candidates requesting a recount is a right, but says there is the possibility this ordinance could reduce those requests.

Check out Salamun’s stance on coming into the new mayoral role:

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