Mike Horner
Chamber president

With the Osceola County Commission currently debating whether to put non-partisan County Commission elections on the November ballot, I want to separate for you the facts from the fiction about this important issue.

Fiction: The County Commission can prevent this issue from coming before the voters.

Fact: The Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce has collected most of the petitions necessary to prompt a Special Election.  Unfortunately, this special election would cost the taxpayers at least $350,000 and attract few voters because of its unusual timing. The better alternative would be for the County Commission to put the issue of non-partisan elections on the ballot this November; this would cost no taxpayer dollars and attract the largest number of voters.

Fiction: The County Commission should put the required Special Election vote off until the 2014 General Election.

Fact: Numerous legal opinions have found that delaying the special election longer than six months would be incredibly difficult to justify legally.  The county would likely lose the inevitable lawsuit that would occur.  The commission would be adding the expense of countless taxpayer dollars in legal fees to the $350,000 they would be squandering by pushing the issue to a separate election.

Fiction: Commission elections would often be decided in the primary instead of in a General Election.

Fact: Non-partisan elections would be no more likely than partisan elections to be decided in the primary. Under a non-partisan system, unless a candidate obtains a majority of the votes in the primary, there will be a General Election. In the last three elections there has been an average of five candidates running for each seat.  It would be nearly impossible to receive a majority of votes in a race with more than three candidates.  Also, 30 percent of Osceola voters are not registered Democrat or Republican. This opens the door for 30 percent more potential candidates to run for office and 30 percent more voters to help select commissioners.

Fiction: The candidate with the most money usually wins non-partisan races.

Fact: Raising money is always valuable to political campaigns, but it is no guarantee of success.  For example, in the 2010 election, two of the three non-partisan School Board races were won by the candidate with the least money. By contrast, the winners of both 2010 partisan County Commission races were won by the candidate who raised the most money.

Fiction: People need party labels to know who to vote for.

Fact: It is an insult to the intelligence of Osceola voters to suggest they are not capable of selecting a candidate based on their merits. Osceola voters have been able to successfully determine who to vote for in the Kissimmee Commission and St. Cloud Council elections for decades. The voters liked non-partisan elections so much they voted overwhelmingly to make the School Board races non-partisan in 1998.

Fiction: Non-partisan elections will reduce minority influence.

Fact: Just the opposite. Because of the shift to single member districts, most of the County Commission general elections are meaningless because the registration is so skewed that the candidate running with the dominant political party from that district is virtually guaranteed success.  This means that the 30 percent of voters who are not Democrat or Republican have no voice and the minority communities that have low turnout in primaries have less of a say. By contrast, non-partisan elections will let everyone participate in the primary and bring more meaning to the General Elections in the commission districts dominated by a single political party.

Conclusion: At the end of the day, the particular merits of the question are not an issue for our Commissioners. The only question for the County Commission is whether they will get the answer with an expensive, low-turnout Special Election or a free, high-turnout General Election.