Collier and Lee

Polls are open across Collier and Lee until seven tonight, and on the ballot in two of the region's cities is permission to borrow 58 million dollars against property taxes

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 18, 2026

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What it changes

Polls in Collier and Lee opened at seven this morning and close at seven tonight, and Lee's office puts the practical rule plainly: you have to be in line by seven to cast a ballot. If you are voting in person today you go to your assigned precinct and nowhere else, which is the part that catches people who voted early at whichever site was convenient. Early voting is finished. It ended in Collier on Saturday. If you are still holding a vote by mail ballot, do not take it to a polling place. Lee's office says a vote by mail ballot can go back to any Supervisor of Elections office up to seven tonight, and that if you turn up at your precinct with it you can surrender it and vote in person instead. That is the whole menu at this point, because the deadline to request one passed on August 6 and Florida law expired every previous standing request for this cycle. The other thing worth knowing before you go is that Florida runs a closed primary and the deadline to register or to change party affiliation for this election was July 20. If you are registered without a party you will still get a ballot, but it will hold only the non partisan contests and the local questions. In two cities those local questions are the reason to turn out at all, because both are asking permission to borrow against property tax. Bonita Springs is voting on general obligation bonds of up to 35 million dollars to buy and build the Bonita Estero Rail Trail. Read the notice rather than the campaign literature and the mechanics are unambiguous: the bonds mature within thirty years, and they are payable from ad valorem property taxes levied in amounts sufficient to pay debt service, on all taxable property within the city. That is a claim on the city's own tax base for a generation. It is not a bed tax, it is not a gas tax and it is not a grant. A yes vote authorises a millage sufficient to service the debt, whatever that turns out to cost once the bonds price. Marco Island is asking the same kind of question for 23 million dollars, on bridges and paving, and this desk covered what that money buys and what the city says it costs a homeowner on August 14. Cape Coral has three charter amendments on its ballot, on the Mayor Pro Tem, on candidate eligibility and on proof of residency. Those cost nothing directly and they are the kind of governance change that only ever matters later, on the day a disputed candidacy or a residency challenge lands. Put the two bond questions together and voters in two Southwest Florida cities are being asked today for up to 58 million dollars of authorised borrowing secured on property taxes. That is a ceiling and not a bill, the two cities are separate with separate tax bases, and the caps are what the ballot authorises rather than what will necessarily be issued. But in a region where the recurring complaint about property tax bills is that they rise faster than incomes, a general obligation bond is the one instrument that puts new debt service directly into the millage. It is worth understanding that before marking the paper, in either direction: a rail trail and a set of bridges are real assets with real value, and the cost of them is a claim on the tax roll for thirty years. Lee's office says it will post preliminary unofficial local results shortly after seven tonight. Those are unofficial. Vote by mail cures and the canvassing board's work run past election night, and a close margin on either bond question will not be settled by the first numbers on the screen. One last practical note. A heat advisory covers both counties today with a heat index of up to 112 from eleven this morning to seven this evening, which is the entire middle of the voting day. If you are queuing outside, take water.

The document: Lee County Supervisor of Elections, Proposed Ballot Measures for the August 18, 2026 Primary Election, notices posted June 2 and June 18, 2026.

Polls are open across Collier and Lee until seven tonight, and on the ballot in two of the region's cities is permission to borrow 58 million dollars against property taxes

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