April 9, 2025 (Orlando) – Orange County residents: pull up your phone calendars and get ready to enter some key election dates. Florida election officials have released information regarding a Special Election to the fill State Senate, District 15, seat: primary election – June 24 and election – September 2. The district seat, left vacant upon the passing of Sen. Geraldine Thompson, covers much of West Orange County, including parts of Apopka.

The deadline to REGISTER to vote for the primary election is May 27 so if you want to vote but you are not registered, plan to register before the deadline. The best way to do that is in person at the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office, your local public library or driver’s license office, to name a few places.

Let’s say you want to RUN in the primary election, the deadline to QUALIFY by petition is 5 p.m., April 16. That is a short time to gather a petition with 2,827 valid signatures and turn the petition into the elections office to be verified but hey, anything is possible!

The alternative is to QUALIFY by paying a fee: $1,781.82 if you plan to run with a certain party (i.e. Democrat or Republican) or $1,187.88 if you plan to run with no party affiliation, according to information published by state election officials.

So far, according to local news reports, at least two people have announced their intentions to run for the state senate seat: Randolph Bracy who ran against Thompson for the seat in last Summer’s primary election and lost.

Shortly after news broke of Thompson’s passing, Bracy announced in a video on Facebook that he was running for the senate seat. His sister, State Representative LaVon Bracy Davis, announced her candidacy for the senate seat on March 21, among family members and friends, in Orlando near the Wells’ Built Museum of African American History, which Thompson helped established, according to reports.

If you have questions about registering to VOTE or qualifying to RUN, contact the elections office: Street Address: 119 W. Kaley St., Orlando, FL 32806, Phone: (407) 836-2070, Website: http://www.ocfelections.com