Candidates running for offices in 2025 will be able to make their campaigns official Thursday as qualifying begins for municipal elections. On the ballot will be Mayoral positions for both the city of Meridian and town of Marion, as well as Meridian’s five City Council members and Marion’s five aldermen.

 

Meridian operates under a strong mayor system, which grants the mayor authority over much of the city’s day-to-day operations. The mayor is responsible for appointing department heads, such as the police chief, fire chief, public works director, director of parks and recreation and more, as well as appointing members of various boards and commissions that help the city’s government function, such as the planning committee and civil service.

 

The mayor has the power to hire and fire employees, direct departments to perform certain tasks and can veto actions by the City Council.

 

The Meridian City Council has five members, with one being elected from each of the city’s five wards. The council members act as the legislative body, enacting ordinances and appropriating money during the annual budget process to allow the city’s departments to function. While some council members champion projects or initiatives unique to their ward, the council acts as one body when conducting the city’s business.

 

Although the council cannot interfere with day-to-day operations in the city, it can, with a majority vote, choose to withhold funding for departments or projects or decline to award projects that have gone out for bid. The council can also refuse to affirm the mayor’s appointments forcing him or her to appoint someone else instead.

 

Marion’s government works slightly differently. The mayor, like the majority of municipal leaders in Mississippi, is more a position of management than a seat of authority. The mayor is responsible for implementing the will of the Board of Aldermen throughout the town’s departments.

 

Marion residents elect five aldermen to represent their interests and make decisions how best to spend tax dollars. Unlike Meridian, in which voters in each ward elect their own representative, Marion aldermen are all selected at-large, meaning all residents vote for all of the aldermen.

 

As a board, the town’s aldermen are responsible for setting a budget, creating and revising policy, directing town employees, approving new hires, terminations and more.

 

Residents planning to run for municipal office must live in the municipality they seek to represent for at least two years prior to the election. They must also be a registered voter in that municipality and never been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment in a penitentiary. Candidates convicted of felony offenses after Dec. 8, 1992, are ineligible to run for mayor.

 

Those running for Meridian City Council have the additional requirement of being a resident of the ward they are running to represent.

 

Candidates affiliated with a political party will need to pay a $10 qualifying fee and submit a statement of intent with the municipal clerk. Independent candidates do not pay a fee but must file a statement of intent along with a petition signed by at least 50 qualified electors of the municipality or ward the candidate is running to represent.

 

The 2025 municipal elections will be the first since new boundaries for Meridian’s wards were redrawn using data from the 2020 census. The City Council earlier this month appropriated $200,000 to cover the cost of issuing new voter identification cards to residents whose ward or polling location has changed.

 

Residents can also find their polling place by visiting the Secretary of State’s Election Day portal at myelectionday.sos.state.ms.us.

 

The qualifying period to run for office in 2025 ends at 5 p.m. Jan. 31. Primary elections are set for April 1, with a runoff date of April 22 if needed. The general election will be June 3.