This is the last editorial before the July 21 Primary Election. Since Sedona straddles Yavapai and Coconino counties, ballots differ slightly and voters have different voting locations, but the city races and local ballot measures are the same for everyone.

Sedona has two candidates for mayor: Brian Fultz and Henry Silbiger. Fultz is the current vice mayor, elected to the post in October after Mayor Scott Jablow resigned and then-Vice Mayor Holli Ploog was automatically elevated to acting mayor and later elected interim mayor. Ploog opted not to run for a full mayoral term and will return to her council seat until the end of her term in 2028. Silbiger is a political newcomer.

There are five candidates running for three open seats on Sedona City Council: Lita Loesch Boyd, Jean Buillet, incumbent Councilwoman Melissa Dunn, Rich Gay and Tony Hauserman.

With Dunn running for reelection, the other two seats are being vacated because Fultz is running for mayor and Councilman Pete Furman opted not to run and will be leaving office.

We have published interviews with and essays by all seven candidates on our website if you are still undecided and want to learn more about the candidates.

Voters can cast up to three votes for the three open seats. There are no official write-in candidates. If you write in a candidate, it counts as a vote cast when the county recorders tally the votes.

To win a seat on council, the counties count all the votes cast for official candidates and the write-ins. They divide by the number of seats — three — divide in half to get 50% of votes cast and round up or add one vote to get the threshold required for election. Only the candidates who exceed the threshold will be elected. While all five candidates getting over that number is a mathematical impossibility, if four candidates do, only the top three get elected. If fewer than three reach the threshold, the un-won seats go to a runoff, so it’s possible that for the Tuesday, Nov. 3, general election, we have may two candidates running for the third seat or four candidates running for two seats — the mathematical probability is that at least one candidate is certain to be elected on July 21.

There are two ballot measures directly related to the city of Sedona.

• Proposition 400, the Alternative Expenditure Limitation, aka “home rule,” if passed, would extend the city’s alternative expenditure limitation for the next four years, letting Sedona City Council set annual spending limits after a public hearing — the city conducts scores of meetings every spring before approving the budget. A “no” vote would instead require city spending to be capped by the state-imposed limit, which is based on budget limits set in 1980, modified by inflation and population growth factors. Although the city of Sedona incorporated in 1988, the state limit was set based on 1980 calculations.
• Proposition 403, the Cultural Park Preservation Act, is an initiative that would designate the 43-acre city-owned property known as both the Sedona Cultural Park and Western Gateway as a parks and recreation facility open to the public, prohibiting residential units or housing and requiring the city to maintain its natural and structural features.

Contested election are limited in the partisan primary.

• Incumbent Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is unopposed. There are four Republicans, U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs [District 5] and David Schweikert [District 1], Ken Miceli and Scott Neely.
• Incumbent Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is unopposed. There are two Republicans, Arizona State Rep. Alexander Kolodin [District 3] and Gina Swoboda; and two Greens, Duwayne Collier and Jon Robert Ralston.
• Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction has two Democrats, Teresa Leyba Ruiz and Brett Newby and two Republicans, incumbent Tom Horne and Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee, who is term-limited from running for her current post.
• Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes is unopposed. There are two Republicans running in the primary, Rodney Glassman and Arizona State Sen. Warren Petersen [District 14], current president of the Arizona Senate.
• For Arizona House of Representatives District 1, voters will cast two ballots for the two open seats. Democrat Sandy Zalecki is unopposed, while incumbent Republican Reps. Selina Bliss and Quang Nguyen face challenger Shawn Dell Wildman.

Yavapai County voters can vote anywhere in the county, but the local locations are the Sedona Elks Lodge, 110 Airport Road, and Sedona Fire District Fire Station 3 at 125 Slide Rock Road, in the Village of Oak Creek. Coconino County voters vote at Christ Lutheran Church 25 Chapel Road. Polls close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21.