Alachua County wins appeal; County Commissioners will be elected at-large
Updated at 11 a.m. on October 16
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In an order issued today, the 1st District Court of Appeal (DCA) ruled in favor of Alachua County, which means that County Commissioners will be elected at-large, beginning in 2026.
After a 2022 ballot referendum to change County Commissioners to single-member districts passed, County Commissioners put a referendum on the November 2024 ballot to return to at-large districts. In October 2024, Judge Olin Shinholser declared the at-large district ballot initiative for the election of Alachua County Commissioners “unlawful… in that its ballot language fails to comply with the statute.”
The 1st DCA rejected that argument today: “Had the Legislature wished to include specific language that must be included on the ballot for a return to at-large voting…, it could have done so. Because it did not, the trial court erred in declaring that the 2024 ballot language violated section 124.011(9).”
In an at-large system, candidates have to live in the district for their seat, but they are elected by all voters in the county.
Attorney Jeff Childers, who represented the plaintiffs, said, “We are disappointed in the First DCA’s conclusion and are considering whether to take a further appeal.”
Alachua County Communications Director Mark Sexton said, “In 2022, the single-member district charter amendment was placed on the ballot through a local bill in Tallahassee, rather than through the normal local process. Then, through a massive and expensive campaign, it barely passed. In 2024, the Commission placed it back on the Presidential ballot and a grassroots effort worked hard to give the voters factual information. Voters overwhelmingly approved reinstating at-large voting and rejoining the majority of Florida Counties that elect commissioners this way. Voters agreed that having five representatives they can hold accountable is better than one. At-large is the default method of electing commissioners in the Florida Constitution.”
The complaint was originally brought by Keith Perry, Kimberly Hord, Jose Lopez, and Sharla Head, with the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners and the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections as defendants.
Might as well just move all of the school board members over into county commission seats at this point. They all think alike, and there is no hope of getting anyone with any other viewpoint to the table now.
Taxation without representation, if you live in District 2, where a majority of voters are Republican.
And honestly it’s better this way. They would have just put it back on the ballot every 2 yrs until they got their way.
Agreed. Time to let it go. If the majority of voters are happy with the way their taxes are spent; the free jail amenities, the condition of our roadways, the high personal property taxes that are directly related to the continued purchase of land and conservation easements – they deserve it.
The downside, since there’s so many voting idiots in Gainesville, we’re stuck with these types.
Commie judges must be purged!
The appeals judges who issued the ruling were Joseph Lewis, appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush; Stephanie W. Ray, appointed by Gov. Rick Scott; and Adam Tanenbaum, appointed by DeSantis.
We are pleased that, pending any further appeal, the wishes of over 70% of our voters will be fulfilled in the 2026 elections, as we rejoin the majority of Florida counties whose County Commissioners are elected at large. See the ruling here: https://alachuacounty.us/Depts/Communications/Documents/ADACompliant/Opinion-Disposition.pdf
Who exactly speaks for “Alachua County”? I suppose that any random poster might have grabbed that handle, but is this post from some tax-payer funded web monkey who is the official mouthpiece of Alachua County government?
Don’t you mean the 70% of Alachua voters that are also UF students that have no roots in Alachua County? The Marxist idiots that you idiots have brainwashed? Those must be the voters you are referring to.
Actually, every precinct in the County voted yes to at-large voting, not just the ones where students live. Take a look: https://enr.electionsfl.org/ALA/3721/Precincts/54109/
That’s pretty conclusive. Not one precinct voted against at-large commissioners.
Can we now cut the BS claims about UF students running our governments? I’ve yet to see any data from those making that claim showing how many UF students vote in our local elections or acknowledgements that some of them would be grad students who might have lived her for 5-7 years.
Congrats to those of you who got your road paved, the rest of us will be ignored now because commissioners will be elected by everyone else.
How much of our Alachua County tax dollars were wasted on this Perry/Childers trial and appeal that could’ve been used to fix roads or do something constructive?
Interesting timing on the County’s new gerrymandered districts that they approved yesterday.
I have mixed feelings about the single-member vs at-large debate.
The Gainesville City Commission has had a mixture of at-large and single-member districts for over 30 years. I haven’t seen any relationship between the quality of commissioner and how they are elected.
The overall decision making went downhill when the Gainesville City Commission went to 7 members and a strong-mayor. They did better with 5 commissioners and a rotating mayor.
Used to be people in their right minds would make decisions for everyone’s benefit. Now it’s people in their left minds, influenced by a bunch of youngsters and others concerned more with getting everything they can from society, rather than making useful contributions to it.
I have no position on which type of representation is better and it should be noted again that most counties in Florida have at-large commissioners.
I do have a position about partisan big government meddling, proven so in this case by the targeting of only 1 at-large commission in the state by a legislature in which we have no real representation.
The problem is we do not have a fair representation of the entire county because most of the voters are liberal college students who really do not have a long term interest in this county.