NICEVILLE, FL - Voters in Niceville will elect a new city councilman and two city commission races will be decided in Valparaiso in municipal elections to be held later this month.

Niceville voters will go to the polls on January 17 in a runoff election between Roger Noel and Daniel Henkel. Noel and Henkel were the top two vote getters in the special election called to fill the seat vacated by longtime City Councilman Terry Tislow, who died in October.

A runoff election must be held because none of the candidates took more than 50 percent of the votes cast in the Jan. 3 special election. In that election, 170 votes were cast for Noel and 166 for Henkel. The other three candidates in the race, David Branscome, Lynne Waltz and Fred Jones, collected less than half the number of votes as Noel and Henkel. Only 515 of Niceville’s 9,100 voters took part in the balloting. 
   
Valparaiso voters will go to the polls on Jan. 29 to fill two city commission seats. Five candidates are running for the seats, which will be filled by the top two vote getters.

Commissioner Tom Miller is running once again. Robert Billingsley announced he would not seek reelection. He has since passed away. The candidates running for city commissioner are: Jack Blystone, Joe Caudill, Jerry Cruz, Tom Miller and Brent Smith.

Voters throughout Florida will head to the polls on Jan. 29 to vote in the presidential preference primary and on the property tax issue.