No election in Alachua

Coerper and Wilford unopposed

ALACHUA – There will be no need for City of Alachua voters to rush to the polls on April 9 since the only two candidates running for office remain unopposed. As the weeklong qualifying period, which began Feb 14 at noon, drew to a close on Thursday, Feb. 21 at noon, only incumbents Mayor Gib Coerper and Commissioner Robert Wilford qualified for their respective seats.

The City will save some $9,000 that it would have cost to run the election.

Coerper and Wilford are scheduled to be sworn in for three-year terms April 22. Coerper ran unopposed and was elected as Mayor in 2010 after resigning from his commission seat to seek the mayoral position. Wilford was elected to Seat 2 on the commission in 2010 during a hotly contested three-way race, which resulted in a runoff election.

No Election was held in 2011 when Commissioner Ben Boukari, Jr. was elected without opposition. Also running unopposed was Commissioner Gary Hardacre, who saw no challengers to his re-election bid in 2012. This year marks the fourth year in a row in which at least one candidate ran uncontested for a commission seat.

Over the last several years, election turnout of the city’s roughly 5,700 voters has hovered in the 8-16 percent range.

#     #     #

Email editor@

alachuatoday.com