The Nov. 4 city of Eagleville election process will begin May 23, which is the earliest date for prospective candidates to pick up nominating petitions at the Rutherford County Election Commission Office in Murfreesboro.

The election commission office is on the south side of the square in Murfreesboro, and the phone number is 898-7743. The petitions must be issued directly to the candidates.

The petitions must be filed with the election commission office by Aug. 21 at noon and must be signed by at least 25 voters who are registered in the candidates’ district.

Four Eagleville councilmen seats will be on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Three full four-year council seats will be up for election this year, which are those of Vice Mayor Ronnie Hill and Councilmen M.A. Smitty and Terry Zumbro.

Also, candidates may run for the two-year unexpired term of former Councilman Greg Buchanan, who resigned Feb. 4 because he moved outside the city limits and did not own property in the city. His term would have expired in 2010.

The city council could have appointed someone to fill Buchanan’s seat until the Nov. 4 election but chose to leave the spot vacant until the election.

The proposed new Eagleville city charter, which is now moving through the state Legislature, if passed would require all council candidates to have lived in the city limits for a least a year. But the candidate requirement would not take effect until the November 2010 election, according to a legislative legal spokesman.

Thus those running in the November 2008 election will come under the candidate qualifications of the current charter, which requires city candidates to either live in the city limits or to live in the voting precinct and own property in the city.

Eagleville elections have traditionally been held in May instead of November. But city councilmen voted in May 2006 to change the election date from April to November to coincide with the federal and state general elections in order to save the city money. City elections are held every two years.

The seats of Mayor Nolan Barham and Councilmen Harold Vincion, David Rigsby and whoever wins Greg Buchanan’s seat will be up for election in November 2010.

Council members’ terms are for four years but the terms of the present council members were extended by six months because of the election date change from May to November.

According to the posting on the county election commission website, a maximum of 95 people voted in the April 20, 2004, election when the three-expiring councilman seats were last filled.

Councilman Ronnie Hill received 95 votes; M.A. Smitty, 82 votes, and Terry Zumbro, 86 votes. Former Councilman Bobby Turner also ran for a seat in the 2004 election and received 56 votes.

The results of the 2006 Eagleville election are not on the website, but councilmen Vincion, Rigsby and Buchanan were unopposed. In 2006, Barham was challenged by David Turner for the mayor’s seat.

Councilmen seats are at large, meaning the top three vote-getters for the three-unexpired terms in the Nov. 4, 2008, election will be the winners. The person who receives the most votes for the two-year term will be the winner of Buchanan’s unexpired council seat.