Alachua County Board of County Commissioners and Alachua County Supervisor of Elections v. Keith Perry, Kimberly Hord, Jose Lopez, and Sharla Head

Summary

The Florida First District Court of Appeal reversed an order declaring unlawful a 2024 Alachua County referendum proposing a return to at-large county commission elections. The court held that Florida Statutes section 124.011(10) governs a return from single-member districts to at-large voting and does not require use of the ballot language specified in section 124.011(9)(a).

Holdings

1. No. Section 124.011(10), which governs a county's return to the procedures otherwise provided by law, applies to a referendum returning from single-member districts to at-large voting. Because subsection (10) references only the procedure in subsection (3), and subsection (3) does not prescribe ballot wording, subsection (9)(a)'s specific wording is not required.
2. The ballot language did not violate section 124.011, and the trial court erred in declaring the referendum unlawful.

Questions Presented

1. Whether section 124.011 required a referendum proposing a return from single-member districts to at-large county-commissioner elections to use the specific ballot language prescribed in section 124.011(9)(a).
2. Whether the 2024 referendum ballot language violated section 124.011.

Disposition

reversed