A Democratic-leaning political action committee has renewed an abandoned push to bring partisan elections to Orange County’s mayoral and commission races.
The PAC, Citizens for Informed Elections, submitted paperwork last week to collect petitions to put a referendum on the 2014 ballot asking voters to make all county races partisan.
Currently, the elected clerk of circuit court, property appraiser, sheriff and tax collector are all elected in partisan Orange races. But the mayor and commissioners are not. The non-partisan county races are sometimes settled in August primaries, when turnout is lower.
Former county Democratic Party chief and now-Tax Collector Scott Randolph briefly mounted a similar push for partisan races a year ago, but later bailed on it.
PAC leader Sean Ashby, a close Randolph ally, said the partisan-race effort is geared to bring more voters into the process, and promote party affiliation information about candidates.
Orange Democrats renew partisan election push – Orlando Sentinel.
