By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

The Board of Osceola County Commissioners Tuesday made the move toward changing how its members are elected by voting to amend the requirements for petitions for ballot referendums turned into the county’s Supervisor of Elections office.

The move will likely validate a portion of some 15,000 petitions collected by a group, headed by Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce and its President Mike Horner, seeking to put a referendum on the ballot, either in November’s general election or in a special election, to make county commission elections non-partisan affairs.

Currently, those are partisan elections requiring a primary race that independents and those without party affiliation, both candidates and voters, do not participate in. The chamber took over the drive from Osceola Ballot Initiative, a resident-run grassroots campaign, earlier this year.

The existing ordinance, voted into the county charter in 1992, required signed petitions to include the signer’s name, address, signature and voting precinct number; quite a few of Horner’s group’s petitions for the drive to get non-partisan county elections on the ballot did not feature the precinct number and were thus invalid.

After a heated debate by the audience, of which a dozen or so shared their views with the board, and some lengthy discussion by the commissioners, the board voted 3-2 in favor of amending the ordinance.

The vote came after Commissioner Mike Harford, who would join fellow Commissioner Brandon Arrington in voting against the charter change, proposed an amended motion to that would allow for petitions in future initiatives to not need precinct numbers to be valid, but any other petitions submitted to the Supervisor of Elections prior to Tuesday’s vote could not be accepted retroactively under the amended ordinance. The rest of the board voted against the motion.

Harford echoed the sentiment of some in the crowd who spoke, voicing a concern if passing the ordinance would open other commission actions to retroactive changes.

“Amending our charter is equivalent to amending our Constitution, I feel, and it should be done more carefully,” he said. “The petition process (in this case) started in January, and under that agreed-to process the chamber made a mistake. The argument is not with us, it’s between the Osceola Ballot Initiative and its contractor.”

Arrington questioned the commission’s role in how elections are held.

“We’re not supposed to be a participant in this process,” he said.

Commission Chairman John Quiñones, who before the vote questioned whether he should abstain from voting because he sits on the chamber board as a representative of the commission, learned from County Attorney Andrew Mai that it wasn’t. He voted in favor of the change.

“I understand this could open up the county to legal liability, but I’m concerned why there are so many obstacles in giving citizens the right to vote in a primary,” he said. “That’s all this group is asking for.”

Among others who voted in favor, Commissioner Fred Hawkins Jr. wondered why the process was different for petitioning candidates and citizen’s initiatives to get on the ballot.

“I’m all for citizens deciding the direction their government should go,” he said. “Let’s force them to seek answers of their candidates.”

Commissioner Frank Attkinson said the action was to enable the county’s 39,000 registered independent voters to vote in primaries.

“I made a campaign promise to the independents in my district to give them a voice,” he said. “Changing the rules gives someone the right to vote.”

Horner said that the referendum can go to the voters in the Nov. 6 general election in one of two ways: by having the required ballots verified by the Osceola County Supervisor of Elections office by Monday — which Horner considered unlikely — or if the County Commission votes to put it on the ballot by super majority by Aug. 30. Otherwise, it would run in a special election, which Horner would like to avoid for monetary reasons — it would cost county taxpayers upwards of $350,000 election — and for turnout reasons.