Jacob Ogles
Voters in Lee County will get to decide whether to adopt single-member voting for County Commission seats.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a local bill (HB 4001) that will put the issue on countywide ballots in 2026. If a majority supports the referendum, single-member districts will go into effect beginning in 2028.
That would be a change from the current system where all five Lee County Commissioners must live in their respective districts but are elected through countywide elections. The county of nearly 835,000 residents is the largest in Florida that currently elects all County Commissioners through at-large votes.
The local bill ended up on the Governor’s desk after years of contention within the Lee County legislative delegation about considering a change. Rep. Mike Giallombardo, a Cape Coral Republican, proposed advancing the issue in 2023 but ultimately withdrew his local bill before the county delegation could take it up.
But this year, the bill passed at a local delegation meeting with only one vote against it. Giallombardo said it’s time to let voters weigh in on the matter.
“I’m pleased that we are finally putting this important issue on the ballot, giving residents the chance to have their voices heard,” he said in a statement to Florida Politics in April. “This is the people’s government, and they deserve the right to determine how it’s structured — something they’ve been denied for far too long.”
Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, a Fort Myers Republican, cast the lone vote at the delegation level against the bill and spoke against the matter on the House floor.
“Our local community doesn’t want this,” she said on the floor. “They don’t want to lose their ability to vote for all five County Commissioners. They don’t want to lose their ability to hold all five County Commissioners accountable at the ballot box.”
The House passed the bill 94-11, and the Senate unanimously passed it with other local bills days later.
Now, public opinion on the issue will be put to the truest test. The Governor’s signature marked the last step before placing the matter on the ballot.
One comment
Larry Gillis, Director-at-Large, Libertarian Party of Florida
June 12, 2025 at 6:32 pm
THE SMELL TEST.
The current arrangement allows the majority of the County to control who represents a particular district within the County. Given our dark political history of shenanigans, it’s about time that the residents of a district get to make that choice for themselves. Whoever gets elected may be a jerk, but the voters of that district will have the satisfaction of knowing that he is THEIR jerk.
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