SARANAC LAKE — The Republican caucus for village trustee is scheduled for Monday night.

Registered Republicans living in the village will be able to vote on who will represent their party on the ballot at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at the Harrietstown Town Hall basement.

To see if you live in the village and can participate, check the village’s zoning map at tinyurl.com/5dzmhhk3.

Currently, there are five candidates in the race for two open seats on the Saranac Lake Village Board of Trustees — Paul Van Cott, Aurora White, Fred Balzac, Katie Stiles and Sean Ryan.

On Tuesday, 145 Saranac Lake Democrats met at the party’s caucus and chose White and Van Cott, registered Democrats running on a joint ticket, to represent the party in the race. Balzac, Stiles and Ryan are still in the race, seeking ballot positions on different party lines. All five candidates had sought the Democratic line.

Stiles and Ryan are registered independently and not affiliated with a party. Both of them have also indicated they will seek the Republican Party’s nomination on Monday.

Balzac, a Democrat, has filed paperwork to run on the Working Families party line.

After the GOP caucus, people can still file to run as an independent candidate by Feb. 13.

Balzac, Stiles and Ryan have also indicated they will file petitions to run on independent party lines, but which lines exactly, they were not sure yet.

Village Clerk Amanda Hopf said it takes 100 signatures to obtain an independent party line. These signatures must come from village residents who have not signed other petitions or participated in a caucus.

Incumbents Rich Shapiro and Tom Catillaz are not running for reelection.

Harrietstown Republican Party Chair Bob Bevilacqua, who will run Monday’s caucus, said non-Republicans and non-village residents are allowed to attend, but will not be able to speak or vote and will be told to stand separately from those participating in the caucus.

He also said candidates who are not registered Republicans will not be allowed to speak at the caucus, but they can have a Republican supporter speak on their behalf.

Before the caucus begins, voters will be verified as being able to vote by being checked against a list from the board of elections.

Bevilacqua said he has not received any letters of intent to run yet. If someone who is not a Republican wants to garner the party line at the caucus, a Republican will need to nominate them. He is also accepting letters of intent before the caucus at bob@carcuzzicarcare@gmail.com.

After the caucus begins, the floor will open for nominations. Village Republicans will then voice nominations for the seat. All nominations need to be seconded. If there are more than two nominations, people will be able to vote for up to two candidates by paper ballot. Only two of the five candidates will be given a position on the Republican line on the March 19 ballot.

At Tuesday’s Democratic caucus, Van Cott took the most votes with 98. White took 72 votes. Ryan came closest to the top two with 46 votes. Stiles took 26 and Balzac took 23 votes.

In all, around 10% of Saranac Lake’s Democrat population showed up to the caucus.

According to voter registration data from both Franklin and Essex counties, which Saranac Lake is split by, there are 2,909 total registered voters in Saranac Lake. Of these, 621 are Republicans and 1,341 are Democrats. The rest of the 947 are registered outside of the two major parties.

The five candidates for the most part have the same village issues in mind — the need for more housing, filling downtown storefronts and improving village infrastructure. And they’re all saying they have the chops to do away with the divisiveness and in-fighting they’ve seen on the current board.

In New York, anyone who participates in a caucus for a village office cannot also sign an independent nominating petition.

Voters signing petitions for independent candidates may only sign a petition for one candidate. If they sign a second petition for another candidate it will be invalidated.