An unfortunate reality the city must face after the death of Council member Henderson is having a special election to fill her seat. Per the Charter, with more than 15 months until the end of the term, an election is required. Inside the 15 months, the remaining council members chose the successor.

Hillsborough County’s Supervisor of Elections has set the dates, with the election scheduled for September 9th with early voting September 4-7. If no candidate breaks fifty percent, a run-off election will be held October 28th. If you want to vote in either of those elections you must be registered to vote by August 11th.

As for candidates, qualifying period is August 11th to 15th, with pre-qualifying starting July 28th. In order to be eligible “Candidates shall have been a resident of the City of Tampa for one year immediately preceding the commencement of the term of office and shall also have been a resident of their district for six months immediately preceding the commencement of their term of office.” Additionally, to appear on the ballot, a candidate must either pay a qualifying fee of $4,511.52 or collect 1008 signatures and pay $0.10 per signature for verification. (The state does provide an option to file an undue burden affidavit if you can’t afford that cost.) The signatures must be registered voters in District 5 and the number is derived from a formula that requires 0.25% of the City of Tampa population. The supervisor used census data of 403,361 persons, according to the ACS 1Y2023.

Thinking about 1008 signatures and turn out, in 2023, with no contest for mayor, city wide the turn out was 13.65% with 5199 total votes cast in District 5. District 5 didn’t have a run-off, but turn-out for that was even lower at 10.76%. Looking back at the 2019 election when there was more of a contest for mayor, turn out in District 5 was higher for the runoff with 9616 votes cast and city wide turn out at 23.2%. City wide there were 240,748 registered voters in 2023, WUSF reported only 44,000 live in District 5. At a 10% turnout with that number, less than 4500 people will chose the council member to finish out the term and potentially give someone a leg up in 2027. The last election in District 5 was won by 80 votes.