{"id":426057,"date":"2026-10-13T00:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T00:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426057\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T00:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T00:20:10","slug":"2026-voters-guide-terrell-thomas-running-for-orange-county-clerk-of-the-court-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426057\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Voters Guide: Terrell Thomas running for Orange County Clerk of the Court \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Party:\u202fNo party affiliation<\/p>\n<p>Campaign website: <a href=\"https:\/\/thomasforclerk.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thomasforclerk.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here are his answers to our questions:<\/p>\n<p>Top issues in your race : If elected, what are the THREE most pressing problems you want to address, and what do you suggest to solve them? In the boxes below, please list each issue and how you will address them:<\/p>\n<p>1.) Strengthening employee culture and leadership. 2.) Improving public accessibility and customer service. 3.) Modernizing technology to create a more efficient and transparent Clerk\u2019s Office<\/p>\n<p>Building a stronger workplace culture. The Clerk\u2019s Office is only as strong as the people who serve our community. I will invest in employee development, leadership training, recognition, and open communication to create a culture where employees feel valued, supported, and empowered to provide exceptional public service.<\/p>\n<p>Expanding access to Clerk services. Every resident should have convenient access to Clerk services. I will introduce mobile community services that bring the Clerk\u2019s Office directly into our neighborhoods while strengthening outreach, improving customer service, and working with community partners to better serve Orange County.<\/p>\n<p>Modernizing technology and operations. A Future-Ready Clerk\u2019s Office embraces innovation while staying focused on exceptional public service. I will modernize technology, enhance online services through a more user-friendly website, optimize the case management system to improve efficiency, performance and data flow, strengthen cybersecurity, and expand mobile and digital service options. By leveraging smart, data-driven solutions, we will deliver government services that are more accessible, transparent, efficient, and responsive to the needs of our community.<\/p>\n<p>Why do you deserve to be elected in this race?<\/p>\n<p>I have dedicated nearly 30 years to serving Florida\u2019s court system, beginning with my career with the Orange County Clerk\u2019s Office and later helping courts across the country improve operations through technology and innovation. I understand the Clerk\u2019s constitutional responsibilities, value its proud tradition of public service, and have the experience and vision to lead the office forward. My commitment through my vision Clerk Forward, is to build a Clerk\u2019s Office that is People First, Community Focused, and Future Ready.<\/p>\n<p>This Voter Guide was produced by the News Collaborative of Central Florida, a collective of independent local news outlets and aligned partners working toward a more informed and engaged Central Florida. Questions for the candidates were created by members of the collaborative and shared with candidates to answer. Attempts were made to contact all candidates to answer our questions \u2013 many responded but some did not. If a candidate did not respond, we have done our best to provide answers to our questions based on candidates\u2019 websites, social media posts or public comments. For more information about the News Collaborative of Central Florida, <a href=\"https:\/\/newscollabcfl.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/votersguide\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Back to the Voters Guide<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Party:\u202fNo party affiliation Campaign website: thomasforclerk.com Here are his answers to our questions: Top issues in your race&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,114,266,115,139,141,140,99,109,146022],"class_list":["post-426057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-social","tag-voters-guide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426057","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=426057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}