BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Starke has synchronized its election dates with county elections.
The final vote occurred March 15 and will allow Supervisor of Elections Amanda Seyfang to run both elections simultaneously.
The Starke election would take place Tuesday, Aug. 23, at the same time as the state and county primary election. In the event of a runoff, Starke’s runoff election would be on state and county Election Day, Nov. 8.
Qualifying week for state, county and city offices would be June 13–17. Early voting dates would be Aug. 8–21 for the primary and Oct. 24–Nov. 6 for Election Day. Voter registration books close on July 25 for the primary and Oct. 11 for the general election.
The vote was 3-1 with Commissioner Danny Nugent objecting.
Nugent’s seat in District 1 is up for election this year along with Districts 3 and 5, currently held by commissioners Shannon Smith and Wilbur Waters. (Smith was absent from the vote, but voted in favor on first reading.)
The county election includes county commission Seats 2 and 4, held by commissioners Kenny Thompson and Danny Riddick, and school board seats 1, 2 and 5, held by school board members Sheila Cummings, Gayle Nicula and Erica Reddish.
County Judge Tatum Davis’ bench is also up for election.
The Starke ballot could contain charter amendment changes for voters to consider, while the Bradford County ballot could contain a referendum on electrical franchise fees.
Judge Davis and other incumbents have already turned in paperwork to run for reelection, including school board members Nicula and Reddish.
Reddish has competition in the nonpartisan race from challenger Lynn Melvin, who has announced her run in District 5.
Only challengers have announced so far in the county commission election. Mark Williams of Starke is running for the commission seat in District 2 as a Republican, while District 4 currently has a three-way Republican race between Tom Germano and Christiann Hudson of Keystone Heights, and Michael Monaghan of Hampton.
