Four Polk cities to hold April elections. Here's who (or what) is on the ballot

Sara-Megan Walsh, Lakeland Ledger
·2 min read

Three Polk County cities have individuals who have signed up to run for local office April 2 despite a new controversial state law.

Davenport, Haines City and Lake Wales have found themselves with full slates of candidates who have qualified for municipal office. These cities have numerous people interested in stepping forward despite new state requirement to disclose more in-depth personal financial information on Form 6 .

Dundee residents will be asked to cast their vote for just one referendum on its April ballot: whether Davenport changes its official name from Town of Dundee to City of Dundee, according to City Clerk Trevor Douthat.

Bartow and Eagle Lake will not hold municipal elections this spring. Two Bartow commissioners and two Eagle Lake officials resigned in December in response to the new state law. Bartow made two unopposed appointments to fill the seats, but Eagle Lake did not have a qualified individual to fill Seat 4 as of Feb. 15.

Here are the candidates whose names will appear on the April 2 ballots:

Davenport

Seat 1: Linda Robinson, Timothy Scott Woodlee

Seat 2: Jeremy Clark, Christopher Lopez

Haines City

Seat 3: Joseph Burgos, Jayne Hall, Morris L. West (incumbent)

Seat 4: Clarence Daniels; Kim Downing; Busta Raggs Sr.; and Carlos Surita

Lake Wales

Seat 2: Brandon Alvarado, Crystal Higbee and Daniel Williams (incumbent)

Seat 4: Carol Gillespie and Danny Krueger (incumbent)

Important Deadlines

To participate in the April municipal elections, here are some important deadlines residents need to be aware of:

  • March 4: voter registration deadline.

  • March 21: Deadline to request a mail ballot.

  • March 20-28: Early walk-in voting from 8:30 a.m to 4 p.m. at Election Headquarters, 250 S. Broadway Ave. in Bartow, and Election Operations, 70 Florida Citrus Blvd. in Winter Haven.

Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on X @SaraWalshFl.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: 4 Polk cities have elections April 2. Voter registration ends March 4