Residents will vote twice this fall before knowing who will serve on the City Council and School Committee.

A preliminary election on Sept. 15 will whittle the fields for the two boards.

Mayor James Fiorentini and challenger John Mitchison will square off in the Nov. 3 election.

Eight School Committee candidates are set to battle it out in September for the six ballot positions available in the November election. Incumbents Joseph Bevilacqua and Kerry Fitzgerald are seeking re-election. Incumbent Erin Francescone did not return nomination papers and will not seek re-election.

Challengers Raymond Sierpina, Paul Magliocchetti, William Evans Jr., Krystine Hetel, Katherine Kaczor and Daniel DeRoche are hoping they will not be among the two with the lowest vote totals, who will be eliminated from the Nov. 3 final election.

The top three vote-getters in the final election will serve on the School Committee. Because one of the three incumbents will not run again, there will be at least one new member on the committee in 2010.

According to City Clerk Peg Toomey, this will be the first election within the past five years to have a preliminary election for School Committee and City Council.

"The last few, we've had a preliminary election for mayor and not for the City Council or the School Committee.

Toomey said this is the most interest she's seen in a position on the council in the five years she's been Haverhill's city clerk. A total of 26 residents took out papers to run for the position, with 21 returning them before deadline Tuesday.

If the signatures of all 21 are approved, the Sept. 15 preliminary will trim the field to 18, meaning the three candidates with the fewest votes would be eliminated.

The top 18 vote-getters in the September preliminary will square off in the final election in November.

Eight of the nine incumbents returned papers to run for re-election. Councilor James Donahue announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election.

Seeking seats on the council are Malcolm Kimball Jr., Christian Miller, Michael Young, Norman Milhendler, David Langlois, Sven Amirian, Colin LePage, Fred Simmons, John Curtin, David Noyes, Stephen Iannalfo, Anastasia Papaefthemiou and Lenny Russo.

In order to run in this year's election, all nomination papers must have been submitted to the City Clerk's office by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28, with at least 50 "good" signatures of registered Haverhill voters who support a candidate's run.

"We say good signatures because in some instances people have signed twice or are not a registered voter or they are simply not legible," Toomey said.

The last day a candidate can remove his or her name from the ballot, and the last day a registered voter may file objections to nomination papers is Aug. 13.