Candidates begin dropping off qualifying papers today

St Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes reported to Historic City News that today is the first day that her office will begin accepting and holding qualifying papers for county, municipal and local district candidates for elected office in the upcoming Primary Elections.

Qualifying week is the five business-day period beginning noon June 4, 2012 until noon June 8 when candidates officially throw their hats in the ring and voters finally know who is running for what.

“Any candidate paperwork taken today will be processed and filed during the qualifying period,” Oakes explained. “Qualifying information for candidates is available on our website at www.votesjc.com”

Looking ahead, on this Friday May 25, written resignations are due from elected officials qualifying as a candidate for another statewide, multi-county, county, or district office if the terms of the offices run concurrently.

Meanwhile, Oakes told us that her office is busy with the maintenance of the voter rolls; verifying and updating in preparation for the August election.

Last week, Historic City News reported on the processes being employed to remove voters who have died since the last election while Oakes joined other election supervisors to discuss a push by the Florida State Department to remove voters they claim are not United States citizens.

“Tallahassee presented some 2,600 registered voters to be dropped,” Oakes said. “They derived these voter’s names from 2011 data taken from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles; some of which was outdated.”

After some pushback, the State Department said it would check its list against newer information from the federal government.

“Please feel free to contact my office by telephone at 904.823.2238 for any assistance,” Oakes said.