Honorary Town Marshal race is on

Time is running out to nominate candidates for this year’s Mother Lode Roundup Honorary Town Marshall. 

Just a dozen votes had been submitted as of this morning. The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday.

The race is one of many events leading up to Tuolumne County’s biggest yearly event, the annual Mother Lode Roundup Parade and Rodeo on Mother’s Day Weekend.

Any community member can be nominated. 

It’s not unusual for most of the votes in the two-week race for Honorary Town Marshal to come in at the last minute. In years past, vote counters were afraid it would be won with fewer than 50 votes until hundreds more came pouring in at the last minute.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, Dave Crocker had the most votes, with 10. He is a longtime Tuolumne County educator and president of the Youth Sports Foundation of Tuolumne County, which, among many other things, is largely responsible for the new Sonora Dome Field Renovation Project, aimed at renovating youth sports fields behind the historic Sonora School Dome on Barretta Street.

Those who voted for him attributed their votes to such things as his contributions to youth sports and students in general, to his being a “hard working, selfless guy,” and to his being a “great community servant.”

Tony Ybarra, executive director of Skyline Place Senior Living in Sonora, got a vote for his expertise and problem solving skills. World War II veteran Maxwell Kernaghan got a vote for, among other things, his contributions to Symphony of the Sierra and Mother Lode Brass and Reed Band, and for teaching a class on the U.S. Constitution at 1 p.m. every Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Sonora.

Clip-out ballots can be found in The Union Democrat every day through the end of this week. The election’s only ballot box is in the newspaper’s lobby at 84 S. Washington St. in downtown Sonora.

The Honorary Town Marshal title was created in 2000 to honor the late Edward “Wimpy” Jones. The winner of the 2013 election will receive a badge from the Sheriff’s Posse and join the Mother Lode Roundup queen and grand marshal in leading the May 11 Roundup Parade along Washington Street.

Voting is easy and rules are few.

• Clip and fill out a ballot. Drop it off at The Union Democrat, 84 S. Washington St., Sonora, or mail it to the paper. Faxed or emailed ballots won’t be counted. Vote just once. Results will be announced the week after the Friday deadline.

• Don’t cast ballots for dogs, cats, horses or other prank candidates. Such votes, although they might get laughs, won’t be counted.

You don’t have to register. You can vote as soon as you are old enough to write, and you can copy ballots by the dozens and have all your friends fill them out. California’s Fair Political Practices Commission has nothing to do with this particular election, either, which makes it a lot more fun.