Archer moves elections to spring

ARCHER – In a 4-1 vote, on April 8 the Archer City Commission passed an ordinance changing the City’s municipal elections to the spring.

It was previously held on the second Tuesday of November, the same day as the national and state elections.

Commissioner Fletcher Hope voted against the election change.

Previously, during the Feb. 11 city commission meeting, Mayor Frank Ogborn said that during the last election, because there were so many amendments voters had to read, Archer’s elections got “lost in the shuffle.”

“Voters don’t want to read all that stuff,” Ogborn said at the February commission meeting. “I thought it was a good idea to move it to the spring.”

According to the ordinance, the municipal elections will take place in even years on the second Tuesday of April.

Archer City Manager Al Grieshaber Jr., said there would be no early voting unless the municipality pays for it.

Archer, Alachua and Newberry will have their municipal elections on the same day.

Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Pam Carpenter said in February during an interview that she is working with cities to have their municipal elections on the same day in the spring in order to increase public awareness of their municipal voting day. This has been an on-going process for the last eight years.

“[It would] provide voters with another annual election day,” she said in February.

So far, Gainesville, Newberry, Alachua, Hawthorne and the towns of LaCrosse and Micanopy have set their municipal elections during the spring.

Two other municipalities, Waldo and High Springs, still hold their elections in November.

Although the elections are on even years, in an interview Grieshaber said there will be an election in April 2015 in order to replace the November 2014 election.

This will be a one-time odd-year election on the second Tuesday of April, according to the ordinance.

This means that the commission seats of Gabe Green and Ogborn would be extended until the spring of 2015 instead of ending November 2014, Grieshaber said.

A commissioner’s term lasts four years, and the positions of mayor and vice mayor, which will continue to be selected in January, last one year.

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