I promise, this will be the last you’ll hear about the 2024 election—God willing and nobody files any local lawsuits.
From candidates, to voters, to elections officials to party affiliates, you did a lot of hard work, which I recognize.
Just under 175,000 residents cast a ballot. That’s about 75% of those of you registered—which is good—but there’s now about 410,000 people living in Osceola County. About two-thirds of them are of voting age, or roughly 270,000. So, more than half of those who can vote, did. We’re getting closer to a true “majority rules”. If you aren’t registered to vote, there’s plenty of time between now and the 2026 election to do so.
Those of you who did vote made a couple of statements. While not enough of you voted to pass state amendments to legalize recreational marijuana use or to put abortion rights past the initial weeks of a pregnancy into the state Constitution, Floridians (and Osceolans!) rejected a measure to make School Board elections partisan. Bravo on that.
My stance on Amendment 1 was somewhere between “No” and “Oh, hell no!” This wouldn’t have even gotten any traction 10 years ago, but our political climate has become so polarized these days, to the point that it is filtering down to the super-local level.
School Board, and City Commission or Council, races are non-partisan, and they are glorious. Candidates have to run on their word or reputation. While party groups will endorse a candidate, they cannot run on their party affiliation, or even mention it in their campaign ads or literature.
Those who supported this measure declared, “I want to know the political beliefs of my candidates!” And that’s fine —but do your own research beyond the voting booth to determine who aligns with what you believe on a political scale. That has little or nothing to do with, in the case of the School Board, assuring your children are educated properly and are safe going to, returning from, and spending the day in their schools.
The only partisan Osceola County races are for the County Commission, and five jobs voted on county-wide: Sheriff, Clerk of Court, Tax Collector, Property Appraiser and Supervisor of Elections. While I don’t understand why these jobs need to be partisan races —if you think a person would be a better Sheriff solely because he or she is a Republican or a Democrat, then I’m not talking to you because I can’t help you —Osceola voters chose to keep all five incumbents in their jobs for another four years.
The five people in those roles have about 90 years of experience with their offices, some going back to before they were elected by the county to do the job, and maintain those offices very, very well. They are all dominated by one party—I’m not going to tell you which one, go look it up if it’s important to you. But members of the county’s other party endorsed all of their challengers. And I have to believe those endorsements were made solely on party affiliation, and not on the job they could do, or if they could do it better than our longtime servants.
And, thankfully, of the 75% of the 85% of residents who can vote, they let their voices be heard—and they got it right.
