The ballot is set for the March 19 general election in Naples with three candidates running for mayor and six others vying for three open seats on City Council.
Candidates to lead the largest municipality in Collier County had to complete a stack of paperwork and pay a filing fee by 5 p.m. Jan. 19 to qualify for the ballot. An additional requirement this year was Form 6—the full, public disclosure of financial interests for officeholders, said Naples City Clerk Patricia Rambosk.
“But it didn’t really seem to be an issue in getting that filed for any of the candidates, so it seemed pretty straightforward,” Rambosk said.
The more intrusive look into elected officials’ finances did cause a vacancy on City Council, though. Vice Mayor Mike McCabe chose to resign before the new mandate became effective Jan. 1 and will not be seeking re-election.
Council member Paul Perry also is not seeking re-election and Council member Ted Blankenship is a mayoral candidate, so he gives up his Council seat, which already was up for re-election on the March ballot. So, the vacation of these three open seats ensures three new council members for the board. The three Council seats will be filled by the top three vote-getters of the six candidates running.
Those six candidates seeking a four-year term on City Council are, in alphabetical order and how their names will appear on the ballot:
- Berne Barton
- Garey Cooper
- Nicholas M. Del Rosso
- William E. Kramer
- Linda S. Penniman
- Tony Perez-Benitoa
In addition, incumbent Mayor Teresa L. Heitmann is seeking reelection to another four-year term. She is being challenged by Council member Edward (Ted) H. Blankenship and former Council member Gary B. Price.
Naples City Council consists of seven members, which includes the mayor, each elected at large in a nonpartisan race. Early voting for the March 19 general election will be March 9-16. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is March 7.
Citizens planning to vote by mail need to know about an important change since the last voting cycle because of a Florida Legislature decision, said Collier County Supervisor of Elections Melissa Blazier.
“Legislation changed, so after the 2022 general election, all of those vote-by-mail requests that we had on file, were all zeroed out,” Blazier said. “So, we start from scratch every election cycle now. So, for any voters who wish to vote by mail, who have voted by mail in the past and want to continue, they have to re-request vote-by-mail ballots, every election cycle now.”
The county notified citizens that vote-by-mail requests have expired, but it’s too early to see if that effort was successful. Voter turnout for primaries is historically lower than a general election.
“This is the first time that we’ve experienced this in the state of Florida, so we just have to see what happens,” Blazier said.
The vote-by-mail request can be made online at colliervotes.gov.
“You can do it online, you can call, call the office, you can request that way,” Blazier said. “In order to request a vote-by-mail ballot, voters are going to have to give the last four digits of their Social Security number or their full Florida driver’s license or ID number. That’s also a new requirement that we have. So, we have to be able to verify some information with the voter before we can make that request for them.”
Collier County newcomers or first-time voters have another deadline to keep in mind.
“The big thing to be aware of is that as we get closer, Feb. 20, is the last day to register to vote or for voters to update their party affiliation for this March 19 election,” Blazier said. “So that’s, that’s an important deadline for voters.”
This story was originally published in The Naples Press on Jan. 26.
