ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County commissioners will now have sufficient time to submit their rural boundary initiative to the Supervisor of Elections’ Office and place it on the Nov. 5 ballot.
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Supervisor Glen Gilzean announced Thursday evening he set the deadline for commissioners to submit ballot language for August 27. Gilzean says this was after talks with Orange County officials this week. The County told Eyewitness News Monday it requested an August 29 deadline.
“It is critically important that the voters of Orange County make their voices heard express their will,” said Supervisor Gilzean in a Facebook post. “The bedrock of our democracy is that people have a say and what their government does, now we have time to work together to ensure the process is open to all.”
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This week, many Orange County commissioners voiced their concerns after Gilzean allegedly considered moving the deadline to as early as this Friday.
Gilzean’s office told Channel 9 Monday it had not set a deadline at the time.
Typically, the deadline has been in mid-to-late August.
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Commissioners said it would be near-to-impossible to get the rural boundary question on the ballot if the deadline was moved to this month.
The Commission’s process to add questions to the ballot takes weeks of legal review, workshops and public hearings. They craft the language of the referendum.
If approved by voters this November, the charter amendment would make it more difficult to build on rural land.
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