GREEN COVE SPRINGS – When April rolls around, voters throughout Clay County will go to the polls with high turnout, if county leaders have their way.

To increase voter turnout and make efficient use of resources, the municipalities of Green Cove Springs, Orange Park and Keystone Heights will hold elections on the same day – April 12. Behind the scenes, the process won’t be as smooth as Elections Supervisor Chris Chambless would prefer, but he said voters won’t notice it.

“It will be a disjointed process, internally, but we’re still having it. For example, Orange Park will qualify their candidates at town hall and the financial reporting aspects of the campaigns will be administered and reported at our office,” Chambless said. “If they did both at our office, the process would be more fluid because we’re the agency carrying out the election.”

To consolidate the elections and create a local Municipal Super Tuesday, Chambless had asked municipalities to change their dates. However, Orange Park and Keystone Heights can’t do so by a simple ordinance passed by their respective councils because the town charters do not permit it.

Keystone Heights City Attorney Rich Komando said some city charter rules and regulations require a voter referendum.

“There are aspects of the charter that can be changed without a referendum and that’s limited to qualifying dates and qualifying language so reporting will be to Mr. Chambless. The dates can be changed and that will soon come up for second reading before council,” Komando said.

Chambless also said Keystone Heights has absentee ballots go through the city clerk. That means county dollars have to be used for Chambless to mail those ballots to the city. Komando said allowing the elections office to handle those ballots by itself requires a change to the city charter. He said city council can’t simply do that by a vote or by an ordinance.

A similar issue exists in Orange Park, where reporting is mandated to go through Assistant Town Manager Sarah Campbell.

“The date of election is the only thing that can be changed by ordinance. Then, the qualifying date would be changed as a consequence of changing the election date, which will be April 12,” Campbell said.

Despite not being able to consolidate all election day operations, Orange Park, Green Cove Springs and Keystone Heights have all gone through the process of changing their municipal election dates since 2013. Each council has open seats to fill in 2016.

In Green Cove Springs, Mayor Van Royal’s term expires in May and he is eligible to run for another term. Ray Braly resigned effective Dec. 31 and his seat will be open, as will that of Felecia Hampshire, who has served the allowable three, three-year terms. Both seats held by Mitch Timberlake and Pam Lewis expire in May along with Royal. Qualifying will open at noon on Feb. 1 and close at noon on Feb. 5 at the elections office.

In Orange Park, two seats will be open due to term limits. Jim Renninger has served three terms and cannot run again, but Mayor Gary Meeks can, if he chooses. He has not declared yet, but qualifying does not begin until noon on Feb. 1 and closes at noon on Feb. 5 at town hall.

In Keystone Heights, Brian Wilson is being termed-out and Marion Kelly’s seat will also be open. She can run again, if she chooses but qualifying isn’t until Feb. 1-5 at city hall.