Policy already in motion for next year | News | The Daily Sun of the Villages

The Election Day engine kicks off with less than a year and campaigns are shifting into high gear.

In Sumter County, the ballot will include the two main state races for governor and the US Senate as well as pressure to limit their local voting rights.

This local referendum, the “Alternative Procedure for the Election of County Commissioners – also known as the“ Reverse One Sumter ”- would revoke the right of voters to elect the five commissioners and limit them to voting on a single commissioner. their district.

Voters rejected the decision in 2004 and again in 2008.

“I thought that would be the end,” said Steve Munz, of Oxford, who chaired the first One Sumter political action committee. “People are happy with the way things are going. People have the right to vote. People want to be able to vote against someone if they choose to do bad deeds for their side of the county by doing so.

The latest attempt to limit voting rights, led by newly elected commissioner Oren Miller, failed to collect enough signatures from verified citizens to qualify for the ballot.

But Miller and fellow new commissioners Craig Estep and Gary Search avoided this process and used the power of their elected office to put it on the ballot anyway.

Miller said at a December 15, 2020 commission workshop that he needed 10,153 signatures and claimed he had “11,000 petitions in my closet right now that are signed, verified and ready.”

However, these signatures were never verified by the election supervisor.

In January, Search offered to put the measure on the ballot and Miller and Estep backed it.

After GOP leaders and homeowners’ organizations denounced the “Reverse One Sumter drive,” Estep and Search said they did not support its adoption.

Miller claims One Sumter gives too much power to the residents of The Villages, even though the One Sumter system requires Commissioners to live in the neighborhood they represent.

Supporters of a Sumter credit the general vote with county-wide benefits, such as upgraded facilities, faster emergency response times, and property taxes that have gone from $ 9.25 per 1,000 $ assessed value at $ 6.40.

Reversing One Sumter “would hamper whatever we’ve worked hard for,” Munz said. “It would go back to the old way where neighborhood golf buddies can vote on whatever they want and people outside the clique don’t get a chance to vote them.”

Longtime Commissioners Garry Breeden and Doug Gilpin opposed the reappearance of “Reverse One Sumter on the ballot.”

“Personally, I like being able to vote for all five Commissioners and not just one,” said Breeden. “So I would prefer to keep it as it is now.

Gilpin said One Sumter is “an old problem.

“I am a Marine Corps veteran, and as someone who has served this country, I understand the value of freedom and the value of our right to vote,” he said. “I will fight hard for it. protect the freedoms that America gives us, and the right to vote is one of the most important. I believe that everyone should be able to vote for the five county commissioners and that the commissioners should have to answer to everyone in the county.

In addition to the voting referendum, Sumter voters will also decide local races for the Breeden and Gilpin seats; the seat of the House of Representatives held by Brett Hage, the seat of the State Senate held by Dennis Baxley and three school board seats.

For The Villages Republican Club, things will really kick off after the holidays, club president Andrew Bilardello said.

“We are going to rally the people,” said Bilardello, from the village of Fenney. “We will do what we can to get Governor SeSantis re-elected, along with many of our local incumbents.”

The Villages Democratic Club also trains volunteers to work for candidates across the state, said Mike Faulk, president of the Villages Democratic Club.

“We plan to be motivated too,” said Faulk, of Village de Collier.

Sumter claims about 63,000 registered Republican voters, about 25,000 Democratic voters, and about 23,000 registered voters with neither party.

Overall, Florida is one of the fastest growing swing states in the country with 5.11 million registered Republicans, 5.12 million registered Democrats, and another 4 million registered with neither party.

“This is the narrowest gap between party registration in the history of Florida politics,” said Susan MacManus, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florida from South.

“I think this largely reflects the state of the state over the past decade, a decade and a half,” added Aubrey Jewett, deputy director of the School of Politics, Security and International Affairs of the University of Central Florida. “Now, people’s party registrations reflect their most important political beliefs. “

This makes participation in the rally even more crucial, and the candidates and their substitutes take the lead.

Already Ben Carson, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Trump, has announced a visit to The Villages here next month.

And Senator Marco Rubio, a frequent visitor to The Villages, returns tomorrow for a veterans event.