Mail-In Ballots Outnumber Early Votes on Opening Day

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Early voting started Monday at the Supervisor of Elections office in Bronson, but before the first early vote was ever cast, more than 1,800 ballots had arrived by mail.

The total number of mail-in ballots cast for Republicans was 1,035, for Democrats 617, for no-party candidates 166, and 22 votes for other parties such as libertarian and reform as of Monday afternoon.

Total mail-in and early votes by mid-day stood at 1,864.

The turnout for early voting was light on the first day.

Supervisor of Elections Tammy Jones said she believes the low turnout was impacted by the start of the school year on Wednesday. Parents and teachers are preoccupied with the start of school.

“If you’re a teacher you’re trying to get your classroom ready and you’ve got daily tasks going on, and if you’re a parent you’re worried about your kids going back to school. You got teacher nights coming up. There’s a lot going on with school-related stuff. I think when school collides with an election, that’s what makes the turnout a little off,” Jones said.

The history of primary voting in Levy County indicates that traditionally about 10,000 of the roughly 30,000 eligible voters cast ballots in the election, according to Jones. She is predicting a 35 percent turnout.

The primary is scheduled for Aug. 23. Early voting takes place only at the Supervisor of Elections office on Court Street next to the Levy County Courthouse in Bronson. Early voting hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, including weekends, until Saturday, Aug. 20.

The races for county commission, school board, and property appraiser will be decided in the primary. The only candidates running for those seats are Republicans, which makes the races universal. School board candidates are non-partisan.

When there are no candidates from other parties in a partisan race, it becomes universal. Voters from both major parties, as well as every other category of voters, can cast ballots in a universal race.

“Everyone gets to vote in those races in the primary,” she said. “Anytime something isn’t going to go to the general election and its partisan race, everyone gets to make that decision,” Jones said.

In the race for circuit judge, a non-partisan contest, the race will move to the general election in November if none of the candidates receives a majority of the votes. The top two candidates would face off for all the marbles on Nov. 8.

The school board is also a non-partisan race, but since there are only two candidates on the ballot, the race will be decided on Aug. 23.