Collier Commissioner looking at countywide elections with voter referendum

Collier County Commissioner Burt Saunders wants the board to consider a voter referendum to switch to countywide elections for commissioners instead of single-district elections.

“The last time this issue was discussed by the county commission was 1988, and so a lot has changed in Collier County,” said Saunders.

“Voters across the entire county could vote and elect them,” said Melissa Blazier, Collier County Supervisor of Elections. ” Our county commissioners have anywhere between 35,000 to 45,000 registered voters in each district now. Now you’re going to a county-wide, where you have the opportunity of having almost 260,000 registered voters vote for you in an election.”

Collier elections hadn’t changed since the late ’80s when it switched to today’s election system from county-wide to a single district, but the issue is up for discussion Tuesday.

“I’m not proposing a change to the way commissioners are elected. I am not proposing that,” said Saunders. “I’m proposing that we conduct the study and let the public weigh in as to whether or not they would like to see this type of an issue on the ballot in November of 2024.”

Blazier said quite a few counties in Florida already run countywide elections.

“If this went forward, if voters had the opportunity to make a choice in November of this year, you know, it obviously would have to take place. It’d be in effect in 2026,” Blazier added.

She said the deadline to get a referendum to the supervisor of elections for the November ballot is August 20th.

“I think that it might help in ways that our county commissioners are representing all of the districts rather than just the one that they reside within,” said Blazier.