Osceola County has ordered candidates to remove political signs placed outside early voting precincts.

Election Supervisor Mary Jane Arrington said she had nothing to do with the order, but local Republicans say no one had any problems until anti-Arrington signs started appearing on the road.

THE Osceola County Republican Party plans to hold a news conference at its Kissimmee headquarters, calling the move election interference. The party said it received notification Friday, days after early voting began, that signs outside polling places — even those planted beyond the 150-foot zone where campaigning is taking place restricted by law – would be removed and destroyed.

“This desperate attempt by the Osceola County Democratic government to silence our political speech at the last minute constitutes nothing less than ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” read a statement from the Osceola Republican chairman. Marc Croix.

Arrington, a Democrat, said she was also negatively affected by the decision. She faces a Republican challenge Jim Trautz This year. She had signs advertising her own re-election campaign at nine early voting locations that she had to remove.

“The Office of the Supervisor of Elections has no authority or jurisdiction over anything,” she said. “I got the same email from the county as everyone else.”

For the record, she said campaigns and volunteers routinely try to put up signs within 150 feet of polling places, but her office’s policy is to lift them off the ground and lay them flat so that the campaigns can then display them legally. locations.

Osceola County Republicans say the rule change only happened after signs appeared with anti-Arrington messages.

Notably, the signs did not target a specific candidate. In addition to Arrington’s reelection campaign for supervisor, his son, Osceola County Commissioner Brandon Arringtonis running for re-election against the Republicans FiorD’Aliza Friads and libertarian Eric Montgomeryand his daughter-in-law, Rep. Kristen ArringtonEast candidate for Senate against the Republicans Jose Martinez.

“I haven’t complained about any campaign signs,” Kristen Arrington said. “There were other signs with similar messages for the primary election.”

She said the change in the county’s sign policy did not affect her own campaign. “You’ve probably heard the saying: signs don’t vote!” » declared the Senate candidate.

Cross said the county must “STOP interfering with the First Amendment rights of candidates and political parties by banning political signs outside of the no-solicitation zone at Osceola County polling places!” »

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