Filing for the vacated 1st Ward Albert Lea City Council seat begins at 8 a.m. today and will continue through Jan. 19.

The City Council in December declared a vacancy in the seat after former 1st Ward Councilor Vern Rasmussen accepted the position of mayor. He was in the middle of his second term on the council when he won the mayoral seat in the November general election.

To file for office, a person must be eligible to vote in Minnesota, be 21 years old at the time he or she would begin the term in May and have lived in the 1st Ward for at least 30 days before the special general election, according to the Freeborn County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office.

Cost of filing is $5.

If more than two people file for office, a special primary election will be March 15.

Absentee voting for the primary would take place Feb. 11 through March 14.

The general election will be May 3, with absentee voting for the general election going April 1 through May 2.

All absentee voting takes place at the Freeborn County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office at the Freeborn County Courthouse.

The person who is elected will serve Rasmussen’s unexpired term, which ends Jan. 7, 2013. The winning candidate will be sworn into office May 16.

Freeborn County Auditor-Treasurer Dennis Distad said if people need to register to vote, they can do so prior to Feb. 22. Otherwise, they can do so the day of the election.