In the special election to decide the next Orange County Clerk of Courts, the office’s longtime general counsel is facing off with a private-sector tech consultant who seeks to run it after starting his career there.
The often-unsung office is responsible for maintaining records and operations at the Orange County courthouse and is used by anyone with business there from prosecutors and defense attorneys to litigants, newlyweds, everyday people paying court fees and traffic tickets, and more.
Roberta Walton Johnson won a contentious Democratic primary election in August that featured a legal battle over one candidate’s eligibility and mudslinging over Walton Johnson’s past. Terrell Thomas, a non-party affiliated candidate, is her only opponent as no Republican filed to run.
The mood in the general election is decidedly calmer as Walton Johnson and Thomas, who overlapped in their employment at the Clerk of Courts, leave behind the drama to focus on their experience, expanding services and outreach, and continuing the office’s legacy as a tech leader in Florida.
Both seek to succeed Tiffany Moore Russell, who was first elected clerk in 2014 but left office this year to run for Orange County mayor. The winner will be sworn in Nov. 10 to fill the remaining two years of Moore Russell’s term.
Walton Johnson is the only attorney in the race. She began working at the Clerk of Courts in 2015 as an operations manager before getting her current job as general counsel in 2021.
In an interview, she said she is ready to take over as her years in leadership familiarized her to the ins and outs of everyday operations.
“In order to lead this organization, you have to truly understand what the needs are from all aspects,” Johnson said. “You really need to understand that this is a very complex constitutional office, and I think voters deserve to have competent leadership who’s ready to start on day one.”
Thomas, meanwhile, was hired in 1998 when he was 19 and worked in the office’s tech division until 2018, when he was hired by the Sanford-based Pioneer Technology Group to develop and roll out software for judicial systems across the state. He left that company in 2021, eventually starting his own consulting firm, Dev.G9 Digital, the following year.
He said his years in the public and private sectors put him in a unique position to carry the office forward.
“When you cast your vote for me, you’re casting a vote for someone who’s a son of the clerk’s office,” Thomas said. “There’s nothing politician about me, there is nothing that says I’m in this for anything other than answering the call to step up and steward this organization to its next era.”
Expanding the office’s digital services has been a major theme of the race, with both candidates proposing ways to more conveniently access the courts while strengthening its digital infrastructure, which they said is already among the best in the state.
Walton Johnson proposes setting up opt-in online reminders for customers who owe money to the court, have suspended licenses or have upcoming court hearings. She also hopes to set up service kiosks inside the main courthouse, its other branches and in targeted locations countywide. She envisions it as an expansion of the office’s online Self-Help Center, which she was first hired to oversee.
She also hopes to address multilingual communities through a navigator program focusing on people for whom English is a second language while expanding educational seminars for people looking to learn more about how the court system works.
“There are opportunities to close that gap and to make sure everyone has an opportunity to not simply connect with the court, but to understand it,” Walton Johnson said.
Similarly, Thomas hopes to develop a mobile app offering the digital features the Clerk of Courts already provides on web browsers. He also wants to provide easier access to in-person services by providing them at the clerk’s other branches as well by leveraging partnerships with local nonprofits and other county institutions
That, in addition to building on existing services for clerk employees and continuing to modernize the office’s infrastructure, is a vision he calls, “Clerk Forward.”
“There’s a tremendous respect that I have for this organization and its legacy and those leaders who have come before me and that really paved the way of setting a foundation for the future,” Thomas said. “I want to ensure that people respect that legacy.”
Thomas is the underdog in the race. He’s been outspent twofold — about $25,600 versus $47,100 by Walton Johnson — while raising well less nearly $27,500 throughout the campaign, not even half that of his opponent.
While Thomas has the support of former clerk’s office leaders and former Apopka Vice Mayor Kyle Beck, Walton Johnson counts on high-profile backing from State Attorney Monique Worrell, Public Defender Melissa Vickers, her former boss Moore Russell and a slew of advocates and lawmakers from all levels of government.
Early voting began Monday and continues through Nov. 1. Election Day is Nov. 3.