Let me make it clear. I love living here! I am not bashing our community.
Jerry Prince just blocked 45,354 people from voting for county commissioner.
The Developer appears to have put two people into the county commissioner races, both as write-in candidates, simply to prevent thousands of voters from being able to vote.
The bad news is that unless you are a registered Republican, you do not get a choice in your county commissioners.
The only way you can vote for county commissioners who are not in the Developer’s pocket is to register as a Republican. Until the Developer put in the two write-in candidates, all voters would have been able to vote for Oren Miller and Craig Estep. A No Party Affiliate already filed for the seat Gary Search is running for, blocking No Party Affiliates and Democrats from having a choice in who wins the county commissioner seat.
This isn’t illegal. It’s just underhanded.
The Developer is so desperate to have his chosen people voting for the Villages whims, that he is actively suppressing the vote (it appears that way)
The Developer has chosen Pete Wahl, who worked for the Developer for years. Prior to that, Wahl had served as county administrator for Lake County. The other Developer pick is Jerry Prince, the current president of the Republican Club of the Villages. That’s right, the man who just helped give the three incumbents $5,000 each. We are meant to believe that Jerry Prince helped give the incumbent $5,000 on one day, and filed to run against him in an honest primary the next day. READ THIS PARAGRAPH AGAIN.
If you are not sure how you are registered to vote you can check it here: https://www.sumterelections.org/Voters/Review-My-Registration-Status–Voter-Lookup
If you need to change your party affiliation to Republican to vote for https://registertovoteflorida.gov/home
There will be no contested races on the No Party Affiliate ballot or on the Democratic ballot. You can change to Republican and if you wish, you can change back to your preferred party on Aug.19.
This isn’t really Democrat vs Republican. It’s Red, White and blue to get all residents of Sumter County represented. Us. Not the Developer.
This isn’t about taxes. It’s about so much more. Giving water away, impact fees that are crazy low to the Developer, causing trickle down consequences, lack of transparency at pet shelter, and more.
How many of you saw them during the first months of the COVID-19 shut down? Other cities had communications from mayors. Our communication should have come from our representatives.
Again, I love The Villages. I just think WE need commissioners who represent Sumter County.
Faye Scher is a resident of the Village of Gilchrist.