Sumter County’s supervisor of elections is questioning the validity of more than 10,000 petition signatures gathered last year for the Reverse One Sumter campaign.
Through the county attorney, elections supervisor William Keen has requested an opinion by the Florida attorney general’s office on whether the signatures are valid due to a time limit in the law.
Even if the signatures are judged not valid, the Reverse One Sumter referendum is not moot because commissioners voted 3-2 in January to place it on the August 2022 primary ballot, which is the next scheduled election.
The Reverse One Sumter campaign, led by Commissioner Oren Miller, aims to overturn the at-large election of commissioners and replace it with elections by voters in each district.
In her letter, County Attorney Jennifer Rey wrote that one section of the Florida Statutes sets a time limit on signatures of Feb. 1 of the following year while another section sets no time limit.
If the first section applies, Rey wrote, then the petition signatures are invalid because they are past the expiration date.
Rey’s letter cited several relevant cases, but none that clarifies the question.
A referendum approved in August 2004 called One Sumter established at-large elections for commissioners, which gives an advantage to the majority of voters in The Villages in electing all five commissioners. Elections by district would allow voters outside The Villages to elect commissioners for their areas.
Another referendum to repeal One Sumter failed in November 2008.
The COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person collection of Reverse One Sumter petition signatures last year.
