2012 Local Lake County, FL Election Candidates and Petition Card Counts as of Friday, May 4
As of Friday, May 4, 2012
by Vance Jochim
[email protected]
Most candidates for elected office in Lake County have turned in the required number of election petition cards exept Jim Miller and Paul Richardson, who are very nearly there.
Additionally, four candidates are not turning in the required 1951 cards, and apparently plan to pay required fees in June.
This report doesn't cover Judges or State elected positions like a State Rep.
That information would be on the State Elections website, while Lake County specific candidates are listed on the local Lake County Elections Superintendent website (see link below).
Candidates running for major elected positions in Lake County are required to turn in 1951 validated petition cards signed by registered voters, or pay a fee ranging from about $1500 to $8000.
We visited the Lake County, FL Elections Dept. today, May 4th, to examine the progress of announced candidates in collecting petition cards.
You can find the official, updated list of candidates at the link below. The Excel version has more data, but neither list provides petition card status like we furnish below.
http://elections.lakecountyfl.gov/candidate_information/index.asp
We found that most candidates have
In order to collect 1951 valid signed petition cards, each candidate turned in around 2000-2200 cards & had from 109 to 229 invalid signatures AND 8-67 duplicate signatures.
That means they had error rates resulting in a rejection by the Elections staff of 10% to 15% of the petition cards turned in.
Most candidates turned in 15-25 batches since January, so they got fast feedback on rejection counts and spread out the workload for the Elections staff who validated the cards.
However, there were a few candidates who had not turned in any cards, and these candidates apparently plan to pay the fees to get on the ballot vs collecting cards, or will drop out before fees are due. They are:
Welton Cadwell - Lake County Commissioner - "Welton never collects cards…" the staff said
Debbie Stivender - School Board
Bill Mathias - School Board
Pam Lee - Property Appraiser (has not turned in many cards, so we assume she may pay the fee due in June.)
Candidates racing to get all their cards (as of 5/4) by the due date of Monday, May 7th at noon.
Jim Miller - School Board - "very close to 1951" (Miller has turned in 17 batches of cards)
Cheryl Thomas - School Board - Has 109 cards, needs 1951 (We were told that she may have many ready to turn in, but no more were turned in by May 4.)
Paul Richardson (1798 - needs 1951, but another batch of 361 cards was just turned in, so we expect him to get the required 1951 cards by Monday, May 7th.
Candidates who have filed all 1951 required (and certified) petition cards as of May 4
Neal Kelly
Jimmy Conner
Cary Baker
Tim Sullivan
Ed Havill
Walter Price
Rosanne Brandeburg
Gary Borders
Margie Eaton
Sandy Carpenter
Emogene Segall
Bob McKee
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The lessons for future candidates is to start EARLY, submit batches of petition cards probably every week so you don't run short of cards, and expect error levels of 10-15%.
Congratulations to all the candidates listed above for hitting the streets and getting those 1951 cards. Some people had large supporting organizations and knew where to go for signatures from earlier experience, and then others, like Margie Eaton or Jim Miller did most of the work themselves and with family members.
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The Daily Commercial published an update article on May 6th HERE.
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