Ormond Beach, FL - The city council adds four new questions to an upcoming county special election.
And those four questions will ask voters their opinions on term lengths, limits, staggering and primary elections.
The Ormond Beach City Council made that decision following a special meeting last night (February 26th).
That meeting was originally scheduled to discuss changing term lengths and whether they should "piggy back" the vote on the county's upcoming special election
Primaries, which were originally taken off the proposed ordinance at their last meeting, ended up becoming one topic of conversation.
"Every city in Volusia County, except Daytona Beach Shores, we're the only other city that does not use the primary system," said Commissioner Dwight Selby.
Selby pointed out that with Ormond's current system if three candidates were available and one candidate won only 21% of the vote, they could win the spot.
"I believe all elected officials should receive a majority of the votes," said Selby. "I don't think that someone should be in office without 50% plus one."
Selby also pointed out that Ormond Beach is the only city in Volusia County that does not stagger elections.
But, with staggering elections comes extending term lengths, according to Selby. He pointed out that if Ormond Beach were to begin staggering with their current term lengths there would be an election every year, which could cause "election fatigue."
He then commented that if Ormond were to adopt the new system, they will be on-par with State and National elections, which could also improve Ormond Beach's voter turnout.
Ormond Beach residents will be able to vote on these issues on May 21st, with the county's mail-in special election.
