Breaking and Developing News
Early voting in the two City Commission runoff elections could be coming to a location near you, according to County Commissioner Bryan Nelson and City Commissioner Bill Arrowsmith.
Early voting for the runoff election is currently scheduled to happen only at the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office in Orlando from Monday April 4 through Friday April 8 from 8am to 5pm. This in accordance with the Proclamation issued by Mayor Kilsheimer on December 2, 2015.
But Orange County Election Supervisor Bill Cowles spoke to Mayor Kilsheimer this weekend with the idea of providing county staff to conduct early voting in Apopka.
“Because of the issues on (the March 15th) Election Day, I wanted to make a gesture to the Apopka voters for early voting for the runoff election,” Cowles explained. “The Supervisor of Elections Office would staff and run an early voting site in Apopka at no charge to the City. But the Mayor pointed out he can’t go back and change the rules. It would take the City Council to amend the early voting rules in the proclamation.”
The early voting idea seemed to have died on Monday.
But on Tuesday Arrowsmith contacted Nelson and asked if there was an Orange County location in close proximity to Apopka that might be available. It was Nelson's impression that the primary reason early voting could not be held in Apopka was due to no suitable location being available, this based on his conversation with Cowles.
Arrowsmith is in one of the two runoff elections and faces Kyle Becker in the race for Seat #4.
Later on Tuesday Nelson said he had secured the use of the John Bridges Center (in South Apopka) for the April 4th-8th early voting dates. He called Arrowsmith, who then contacted the City Clerk, Linda Goff, to move the early voting process forward.
At the time of this article’s publication, Arrowsmith had not received confirmation from the City Clerk and Kilsheimer had not returned calls or emails from The Apopka Voice in regards to early voting in or near Apopka.
According to Cindy Clark, Senior Deputy in the Elections Department, early voting for runoff elections is almost always conducted at the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office in all 11 Orange County Municipalities including Apopka.
“One time over 10 years ago, Apopka conducted early voting for a runoff at City Hall,” she said. “But not since then. No one has had early voting in its city since then. Not any of the Municipalities.”
The Apopka Voice will continue to update this developing story.
