{"id":437155,"date":"2026-10-25T01:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T01:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/437155\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T01:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T01:06:09","slug":"orange-county-mayoral-candidates-encourage-early-voting-ahead-of-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/437155\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County mayoral candidates encourage early voting ahead of Election Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kennedy<\/a>ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

With less than two weeks until Election Day<\/a>, Orange County mayoral candidates Tiffany Moore Russell and Chris Messina are encouraging voters to cast their ballots early. <\/p>\n

More than 130,000 Orange County residents have already voted either early or by mail, accounting for nearly 15% of the county\u2019s 820,000 eligible voters. <\/p>\n

Mayoral candidate Tiffany Moore Russell, who voted on Saturday, expressed her desire to see voter turnout increase. <\/p>\n

“There’s so much at stake, and I would love to see those numbers increase as we head into the second week of early voting,” Russell said. <\/p>\n

Russell outlined her campaign priorities, which include creating more high-paying jobs, expanding housing opportunities, and addressing traffic issues as the county grows. <\/p>\n

“I’m running for mayor because of these two, because I want to make sure that I can leave a community that they want to return to raise their family,” Russell said. <\/p>\n

Her opponent, Chris Messina, emphasized his focus on economic development and highlighted his ongoing efforts in the community. <\/p>\n

“I’ve been working on bringing clean water to Wedgefield, economic development to Parramore by extending the Economic Opportunity Zone and the Space Academy to Central Florida,” Messina said. <\/p>\n

Both candidates are urging voters to make their voices heard before Election Day. <\/p>\n

“My message just to the 78% that didn’t vote in August: come out to vote. Make sure your voice is heard and you let us know who you want to lead you,” Russell said. <\/p>\n

Messina also stressed the importance of voting. <\/p>\n

“Voting really, it’s a fundamental right and privilege, but also a responsibility of every American citizen, so we had men and women throughout the centuries that have died for this,” Messina said. <\/p>\n

Orange County has 27 early voting locations open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., where voters can cast their ballots at any location before Election Day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 With less than two weeks until Election Day, Orange County mayoral candidates Tiffany Moore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[22439,147,147646,27519,502,14496,7143,13396,155364,139,141,140,146507,171073,45821,16663,58739,1456],"class_list":["post-437155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-ballot","tag-central-florida","tag-chris-messina","tag-clean-water","tag-community","tag-early-voting","tag-economic-development","tag-election-day","tag-orange-county-resident","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-russell","tag-space-academy","tag-voice","tag-voter","tag-wedgefield","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437155","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=437155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}