Five cities cancel elections No contested races: Huntsville, Marriott-Slaterville, Elwood, Fielding and Portage By JESUS LOPEZ Standard-Examiner staff jlopez@standard.net MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE — All three candidates in Marriott-Slat- erville's city elections are running unopposed, but in past years, the city still would have had to open the polls. However, with a new law passed by the state Legislature this year, cities with no contested candidates can cancel municipal elections. Utah Elections 2011 "It's nice being able to save money and not have elections when all of the candidates are running unopposed," Marriott-Slaterville City Administrator Bill Morris said. By not having an election, Marriott-Slaterville is saving the city $4,500 to $5,000 this year. Besides Marriott-Slaterville, Huntsville is the only other municipality that canceled elections in Weber County. In Box Elder County, Elwood, Fielding and Portage have canceled municipal elections. All cities in Davis County will hold elections. The decision to cancel an election falls to municipal officials, Box Elder County Clerk Maria Young said. Uncontested elections are not un common for some of the small municipalities in Weber and Box Elder counties. "If there is not a pressing issue," Young said, "they have to go out there and drum up people to run for office." Now the cities do not have to invest their own resources for the uncontested elections. "I think the cities kind of like it — they get to save that money," Young said. "It would be interesting to see how the public feels about it." o o c+ o cr fD -s o