Alachua County’s Supervisor of Elections Office is taking applications for the chance to earn one of four $1,200 scholarships given each year by the Florida Supervisors of Elections.
The scholarships are for full-time college juniors and seniors studying political science, public administration, business administration or journalism/ mass communications. Applicants also must be registered to vote in Florida.
In a press release, Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton said that several of the county’s students have earned scholarships in recent years.
“We are excited to once again work with Supervisors of Elections across the state to offer students this scholarship opportunity,” Barton said in the release. “Alachua County has some of the brightest and most ambitious students in the state, and we would love to help them on their path to success.
Students can send applications to the Supervisor of Elections Office in the county where they vote, and the office will conduct interviews before sending its nomination to the Florida Supervisor of Elections for consideration.
The application and guidelines are available here. The deadline for the scholarship application is March 10.
You can contact the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Office at 352-374-5252 for additional information.
While it sounds good on the surface, if this is sourced from taxpayer money, I have to question where the authority to use it as scholarships came from. Did our legislature or other responsible representative body make this possible somehow? Was it intentional or did a loophole show up somewhere? How is the competition for these scholarships planned and by whom?