If you aren’t aware that there’s about to be a city election in on Nov. 3, you can hardly be blamed. The election wasn’t supposed to even happen this year – it was originally scheduled for April 5, 2016, three weeks after Florida’s March 2016 presidential primary election. Earlier this year, though, Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles sounded the alarm – what if it was too confusing for voters to have two elections so close to one another? What if they didn’t show up at the polls? He urged the city to schedule its election to happen on primary day, or reschedule for a later date in 2016.
Instead, the Orlando City Council voted in May to move its elections to Nov. 3, giving people just six months to raise money and pull campaigns together to run for one of the four seats up for grabs: that of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and city commissioners Tony Ortiz, Patty Sheehan and Sam Ings. Despite the truncated schedule, all of the incumbents except for Ortiz face challengers who say it’s time for a change.
Now the election is just nearly here. Do you know where the candidates stand on the issues? Are you ready to vote? If not, you’re not alone. A lot of the actual issues – how to spur the economy in depressed neighborhoods, jobs with living wages, transportation, and homelessness – have been buried amid disagreements about signs and mailers and debates.
If you’re having a hard time keeping up, on Oct. 21 Orlando Weekly published a Political Pop Quiz™, an on-the-spot exam of 11 random and relevant questions that gauge what the candidates know or think they know about the inner workings of Orlando.
Happy voting!