Judge upholds ballot measure on county offiffices

TALLAHASSEE — Florida voters have the right to decide whether all local constitutional officers, including sheriffffffffffffs and tax collectors, should be elected, a Leon County judge ruled.

Circuit Judge James Shelfer on Thursday rejected a challenge from Volusia and Broward counties that sought to have what is known as Amendment 10 removed from the Nov. 6 general election ballot. The challenge argued the ballot language and summary were mi sleading.

The amendment, which was placed on the ballot by the Constitution Revision Commission, would make the fifififififive constitutional offiffices — sheriffffffffffff, tax collector, supervisor of elections, clerk of the court and property appraiser — mandatory and require elections for the offiffices in all 67 counties. It would also prohibit charter counties from abolishing or modifying those offiffices.

In his ruling, Shelfer said “an average Florida voter should easily understand” the chief purpose of the amendment. He rejected an argument from the challengers that the constitutional-offificer provisions were unfairly sandwiched between “feel good” proposals in the ballot measure related to military veterans and counterterrorism.

He a c k n owl e d ge d t h e amendment was unclear on whether its impact would be “prospective or retrospective.” But he said “that is a question for another case and another day.”

S h e l f e r a l s o n o t e d h i s order was “the first stop in a journey to the Florida Supreme Court whose decision will determine if the amendment makes it onto the ballot.”

Vo l u s i a , B r owa rd a n d other charter counties have opposed the amendment, arguing that loc al voters through the charter process should have the power to decide how constitutional offices are structured and whether t hey shoul d b e elected positions.

Carolyn Timmann, the Martin County clerk of court who helped craft the amendment while serving on the Constitution Revision Commission, said the measure “protects the people’s right to vote” for constitutional offifficers.

She said she was “happy that the people of Florida will have the opportunity to vote on this, along with other measures important to protecting our veterans, families and tax dollars.”

Amendment 10 would also allow the Legislature to begin its annual session in January in even-numbered years.