Fort Meade Recall Update: Two Petitions Certified, McCutchen Falls 60 Signatures Short

Recall efforts against Fort Meade Mayor Jaret Landon Williams and Commissioner Matthew Taylor advanced this week, while the petition against Vice Mayor Petrina McCutchen fell 60 signatures short, according to certification documents from the Polk County Supervisor of Elections.

Chief Deputy Supervisor of Elections Nathan M. Register certified 578 valid signatures across the three petitions on Aug. 14. Organizers submitted 1,311. More than half were thrown out.

Taylor’s petition drew 147 valid signatures, exceeding the 100-signature threshold. Williams drew 391 against a threshold of about 274. McCutchen drew only 40 out of 100 needed for recall.

The gap comes from how Fort Meade elects its commission. Under the city charter, Seats 1 through 3 are single-member district seats, and Seats 4 and 5 are at-large. Florida Statute 100.361 provides that when an official represents a district and is elected only by voters in that district, only voters from that district may sign the petition to recall that official.

Williams holds Seat 4, at-large, so every registered voter in Fort Meade was eligible to sign. Taylor holds Seat 1, Precinct 516. McCutchen holds Seat 2, Precinct 517.

3 percent of Mayor Williams’ petition did not count. Taylor had a 60 percent rejection rate but still cleared the threshold, and McCutchen’s petition had the highest rejection rate of about 85 percent. She needed at least 60 more signatures from voters in her district.

Recall Committee Chairman Michael Bennett told The Citrus Tea News the committee will make a second attempt on McCutchen’s seat. He said the shortfall came from a misunderstanding about where signatures had to be gathered. “Had I known that I would have done more work on that district,” Bennett said.

Bennett told The Citrus Tea News that he has more than 200 potential signers inside her district whose signatures he did not collect, and that organizers are working out their next steps.

Register’s certification lists the registered elector counts used to set each threshold. Seat 1 had 878 electors at the book closing for the preceding municipal election. Seat 2 had 860. Seat 4 had 2,734. The statute requires signatures from 10 percent of a district’s registered electors or a fixed minimum, whichever is greater.

Register was explicit about the limits of what he certified. He verified that signatures matched registered electors within city limits, and wrote that he is not certifying the validity or legal sufficiency of the petitions. Questions of proper form, witness oaths, filing deadlines and whether the stated grounds satisfy the statute fall to the city clerk and, if contested, to the courts.

For the two petitions that cleared, state law dictates what happens next.

• The clerk serves notice on each official, who may file a written defense.
• That defense is attached to a second document, the Recall Petition and Defense, which organizers may circulate for signatures from 15 percent of the district’s electors.
• Applied to the certified elector counts, that is roughly 132 signatures for Taylor and roughly 411 for Williams.
• Signatures must be gathered and filed within 60 days of delivery to the committee chair, and the supervisor then has 30 days to certify them.

If that second round succeeds, an official may resign within five days. Otherwise, the chief judge of the judicial circuit sets a recall election to be held 30 to 60 days later. If it fails, the statute terminates the proceedings and bars reuse of the petitions.

The recall effort follows the city commission’s April approval of a development agreement with Stonebridge for a hyperscale data center campus on roughly 1,300 acres west of U.S. 98. Five residents filed two lawsuits in Polk County in May seeking to void the approval, and the Watchdogs of Fort Meade began gathering recall signatures around the same time.

Florida law does not permit recall over a policy disagreement. The statute limits the grounds to specific categories, including malfeasance, misfeasance, and neglect of duty and organizers have framed their petitions around governance allegations rather than the data center vote itself.

The recall has already surfaced at the commission table. Draft minutes from the July 14 meeting record the city attorney advising commissioners that he represents the commission as a body rather than individual members, and that the commission could, by official action at a future meeting, consider providing legal services related to the recall matters. The commission’s next regular meeting is Sept. 8.

Sources: “Fort Meade Residents File Two Lawsuits to Block Stonebridge Data Center as Watchdogs Launch Recall Push,” The Citrus Tea News, thecitrustea.com, June 23, 2026; Certification of Recall Petitions, Nathan M. Register, Chief Deputy Supervisor of Elections, Polk County Supervisor of Elections, August 14, 2026; Petition Signature Summary, Petition 1,290 FM RC PM, Polk County Supervisor of Elections, August 14, 2026; Petition Signature Summary, Petition 1,291 FM RC MT, Polk County Supervisor of Elections, August 14, 2026; Petition Signature Summary, Petition 1,292 FM RC JLW, Polk County Supervisor of Elections, August 14, 2026; Florida Statute 100.361, Municipal Recall, The Florida Senate, flsenate.gov; City of Fort Meade Charter, Article II, Form of Government and Elections, Municode Library, library.municode.com; City Commission, City of Fort Meade, cityoffortmeade.org; City of Fort Meade City Commission Regular Meeting Agenda Packet, August 11, 2026; Draft Minutes, Fort Meade City Commission Regular Meeting, July 14, 2026