VOLUME 1 ISSUE 15
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
$2
OCTOBER 9 - OCTOBER 15, 2020
Dems surrender ‘20 local races
County sees record number of mail-in ballots By Bill Thompson Deputy Editor
A
During 2020, a total of 28 candidates entered those county contests at some point. They included those in School Board elections, which by law are nonpartisan, write-ins, and candidates claiming no party affiliation. Only one of them – Cynthia Anne Moody – was a registered Democrat, according to election records. Moody, a candidate for court clerk, failed to qualify. She raised just $55 for her campaign, including in-kind
record number of Marion County voters have indicated a preference for voting by mail. Two weeks ago, as his office worked to comply with a state law mandating that they be issued 33 to 40 days ahead of the election, Elections Supervisor Wesley Wilcox announced that 79,860 voters had requested mail-in ballots. That was a new record, Wilcox said. And the number keeps climbing. Over the past two weeks, another 6,432 voters have requested mail-in ballots, bringing the total to 86,292, Wilcox told the Gazette this week. And he expects the tally to top more than 88,000 by Oct. 24, the deadline to request such a ballot. For comparison, the previous record for a general election was 54,518, just two years ago. Meanwhile, a sizeable portion of those voters have already cast ballots. Wilcox noted that 29 percent had already returned their mailin ballots, most through the mail but many by dropping them off at his office. Stated differently, voter turnout in Marion County is already at 10 percent, more than three weeks before Election Day. Wilcox attributed the heightened level of interest in mail-in ballots to the confluence of a few factors. For one thing, the Democratic Party is pushing hard to encourage its members and voters in general to vote by mail. Simultaneously, the Republican Party, which has long championed voting by mail, is urging voters to physically go to the polls. That, in turn, is driving Democrats to advocate even more for mail-in balloting,
See Democrats, page 4
See Ballots, page 3
Illustration by David Vallejo
With no Democrats in any of the 10 local races on the November ballot, it appears the Democratic Party has surrendered in Ocala By Bill Thompson Deputy Editor
A
t its start, 2020 promised Marion County voters plenty of action on the local election front. Ten races for county constitutional offices, meaning those whose duties are spelled out in the state Constitution, were on the ballot. But a month before Election Day, only one of those races – School Board District 1 – remains undecided.
One reason: As the Democratic Party feverishly seeks to oust President Donald Trump from the White House, local Democrats have failed to show up for local races, which arguably matters most when considering citizen interaction with government. LaVonda McCandless, chairwoman of the Marion County Democratic Party, said she’s been “overwhelmed” this year by volunteers who want to help advocate
the party’s message and promote its causes. No one, however, wants to actually run for office, she noted. McCandless believes a few factors have converged to keep local Democrats on the bench. They include the toxicity of the overall political climate, a struggle to raise money, and a lack of recent electoral success. But, she said, she is hopeful that the party can rebound with candidates for local elections in the near term.
Hopes dim for Light Up Ocala event By Brad Rogers Executive Editor The lights will still go on, but the prospects for the Light Up Ocala event being held this year dimmed Tuesday night when the City Council expressed concern about the specter of inviting tens of thousands of people to pack the downtown square in the midst of a pandemic. The council had asked its staff to come up with criteria for holding the massive holiday gathering and present it before Oct. 20, when the council will make a final decision on whether to hold the event,
which last year drew between 20,000 and 30,000 people, according to city estimates. Ken Whitehead, assistant city manager for Public Works, told council members they had examined Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Phase 3 guidelines, as well as Florida Department of Health recommendations, in order to conform to mitigation practices. “While there appears to be criteria for how well mitigation efforts are working, there is no established and accepted criteria for determining when the threat has sufficiently subsided,” Whitehead said. Whitehead said two criteria stood out: See Lights, page 2
Subscribers within the following zip codes will receive their paper every Friday by courier. Those that live outside this area will receive their paper through USPS on the USPS schedule. 34470 • 34471 • 34474 • 34476 • 34481 Subscription orders must be received by 5 pm on Tuesday in order to be included in the following week’s delivery. Starting at $14/month ocalagazette.com/subscribe
Photo by Dave Miller
Inside: Commentary............................ 3 Downtown Hotel..................... 5 Vaccines.................................... 7 Football..................................... 14 Volleyball.................................. 16 Calendar................................... 17