Anyone who has needed to pay a traffic fine, obtain a marriage license, serve on a jury, or is otherwise affected by Orange County\u2019s legal system has engaged with the clerk of courts. On Tuesday, Democratic voters will hit the polls to decide who they want to run it.<\/p>\n
The Democratic primary race, open only to those registered with the party, is between Roberta Walton Johnson, the office\u2019s general counsel, and former Orange County Property Appraiser Rick Singh. With no Republican opposition, the winner will face no-party-affiliated candidate Terrell Thomas in November to succeed Democrat Tiffany Moore Russell, who resigned after more than a decade in office to run for Orange County mayor.<\/p>\n
While Walton Johnson is the only attorney and the only primary candidate to have worked in the clerk\u2019s office, Singh is the only candidate previously elected to public office, having served two terms as property appraiser before losing his bid for a third term to Amy Mercado.<\/p>\n
The two have also faced past controversies that have added an ugly edge to the race \u2014 Walton Johnson is being attacked for a 30-year-old felony bank fraud conviction she says she has left in the past, while Singh faced accusations of in-office misconduct for which he was not charged.<\/p>\n
Both candidates see modernizing the office\u2019s systems and expanding access to the public as cornerstones of their campaigns. If elected, Singh said he hopes to develop an app where customers can order forms and use other services electronically as a way of streamlining the work typically done in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany things in this office can be streamlined using efficient technology,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re at an age where we can order a pizza online \u2014 why can\u2019t we order a form from the clerk of courts office?\u201d<\/p>\n
Walton Johnson said she hopes to implement a tool that would send electronic notifications to customers who opt in, reminding them of payments they owe, suspended licenses or upcoming court hearings.<\/p>\n
As someone first hired to oversee the office\u2019s online Self-Help Center, she further intends to expand the service to kiosks inside the courthouse and its branches countywide that would allow customers to submit documents without having to sit through long wait times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat will free up our people and allow them to be more hands-on with our customers who do need that assistance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Both have also garnered high profile endorsements, with Singh counting on support from the Fraternal Order of Police and the Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce along with some labor unions, while Walton Johnson touts being backed by Moore Russell and a slew of local lawmakers as well as State Attorney Monique Worrell and Public Defender Melissa Vickers.<\/p>\n
Singh, meanwhile, leads the race financially with more than $137,000 in campaign contributions, more than quadruple what Walton Johnson has raised so far, while also spending 2.5 times as much at nearly $63,000.<\/p>\n
While Walton Johnson and Singh said they prefer to focus on the issues, the race turned ugly in recent months over past run-ins with law enforcement and other controversies resurfacing on social media. The race also saw a lawsuit filed by Singh that forced a third candidate, County Commissioner Maribel Gomez Cordero, to withdraw from the race after being accused of violating Florida\u2019s \u201cresign-to-run\u201d law.<\/p>\n
In Walton Johnson\u2019s case, her critics focused on her 1996 federal conviction for bank fraud. She was sentenced to probation and later granted clemency after cooperating with authorities when she was caught cashing stolen tax refund checks given to her as a teller in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
Since then, she went to Florida A&M University College of Law and joined the Florida Bar. From there, she was an attorney for Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida and worked in private practice before being hired as operations manager for the clerk of courts in 2015, the position she held before getting the job as general counsel in 2021.<\/p>\n
Walton Johnson said her trajectory is \u201ca story of redemption and success,\u201d but her conviction remains a key point for Singh\u2019s supporters who alleged she would be unable to access the Comprehensive Case Information System, a database of court information crucial to the clerk\u2019s duties and required by Florida law.<\/p>\n
An ad by Affordable Living Florida \u2014 run by Doug Kaplan, a political strategist who records show donated $250 to support Singh, who denies approving the ad \u2014 attacked Walton Johnson with that claim and went viral on social media. But the organization that runs the database, Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers, said a felony conviction doesn\u2019t actually prevent access.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s complete nonsense,\u201d Walton Johnson said.<\/p>\n
As for Singh, Walton Johnson\u2019s supporters honed in on his past controversies during his time as property appraiser, including a whistleblower lawsuit alleging in-office misconduct settled by his successor in 2021 and a criminal probe over an alleged scheme to falsify official documents, for which prosecutors later decided not to file charges.<\/p>\n
Singh has denied all wrongdoing and said he would have fought the lawsuit had he remained in office, pointing to an investigation that found no wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was fully prepared and capable to defend any aspect of this \u2026 and I went along almost two years gathering evidence and preparing my defense because I feel it was just completely BS,\u201d Singh said.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Walton Johnson\u2019s supporters mentioned yet another incident: a 2024 report by the Seminole County Sheriff\u2019s Office alleging Singh stole 46 units of marble decorative trim at Floor & Decor in Lake Mary by placing the items beneath cheaper products. No charges were filed, however, after the store and Singh reached an agreement to reimburse the difference.<\/p>\n
In a video posted online, Singh said a cashier\u2019s error during checkout led to law enforcement getting involved but the matter was quickly resolved. \u201cThere was no crime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe this is nothing more than last-minute political attacks by supporters of my opponent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone who has needed to pay a traffic fine, obtain a marriage license, serve on a jury, or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,28,114,115,1335,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":["post-369313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}