By Ally Lanasa, Staff Writer

(July 23, 2020) The Berlin Board of Supervisors of Elections last Tuesday reviewed and certified the eligibility of the six candidates who had filed as of that date for the Berlin municipal election in October.

Mary Bohlen

Candidates enter the contest by filling out forms from Berlin Deputy Town Administrator Mary Bohlen.

According to the town charter, a candidate must be a registered voter and live in the district they are running to represent on the council. In addition, the candidate had to live in that district for a year prior to the election.

Those who are elected into office will serve a four-year term.

“I have already gone through and made sure that the candidate is eligible to vote, he or she is registered … they live where they say they live, they have lived there for a year, financial disclosure forms have been filed, either for the incumbent–they should have been filed for April 30 of this year and they’re kept on file in the administration office. New candidates have to file their financial disclosure when they file for office,” Bohlen said. 

The Ethics Commission receives those forms, Bohlen added, so the board members just need to certify that the forms were turned in.

The board members are responsible for certifying that the candidates are eligible to run in agreement with Bohlen’s assessment.

“We have a couple more meetings before the election, and if more people file between now and then, [the board] will go through this process again,” Bohlen said. “There’s no sense of sitting on these candidates until September when we can go ahead and get them certified.”

The Board of Supervisors of Elections will meet twice in September before the Oct. 6 election day.

For more information, visit berlinmd.gov.