Tuesday’s mid-year elections saw a modest turnout in Alachua County, said supervisor of elections Pam Carpenter.
More than 30,000 primary votes were cast, putting county voter turnout at about 19.5 percent.
Carpenter said the average turnout for midterm elections can range anywhere from 20 to 35 percent. She was hoping turnout would be higher because Alachua County saw record-breaking turnout during early voting, but numbers seemed standard Tuesday evening.
“It’s pretty much in line with what we’ve seen before in past mid-year primaries,” Carpenter said.
Ted Yoho won the Republican primary for Florida’s 3rd Congressional District, beating out candidate Jake Rush. Yoho received 80 percent of about 9,800 votes cast in Alachua County.
In comparison, Glo Smith received 63 percent of about 640 votes cast in the county. About 10,800 votes were cast for Smith within her district, winning the Republican primary for Florida’s 5th Congressional District.
Other primary winners included Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Charlie Crist, who won the Democratic primary.
At about 6:40 a.m., Lavon Bracy of Gainesville arrived at her polling station.
After casting her vote in the Thelma A. Boltin Center, she remained outside in a small folding chair, sitting in the sun and supporting other voters who made the trip to the polls.
Bracy said she even sat outside through lunch, encouraging others to exercise their civic duty.
“I haven’t missed voting since I was 21 years old and now I’m 65,” she said, adding that she raised her two children to be active voters as well.
Bracy said turnout seemed mild at her Precinct 27 station, slowing down throughout the day.
Karen Fisher, a teacher for the Alachua County School District, pulled up to the same polling station at about 6 p.m. to vote.
By then, the center was nearly empty, but Fisher cast a ballot anyway.
“Using your right to vote is vitally important,” she said.
Carpenter said Tuesday’s election went smoothly.
Though a few machines were not operating correctly early in the day, she said the machines were replaced.
“All of the votes have been tabulated,” she said.
Precinct 6 caused a short delay in reporting final numbers because of a phone line error.
Poll workers were not able to send the votes in remotely and instead had to physically drive the ballot results back.
Final numbers came in a little after 9 p.m.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 8/27/2014 under the headline "Modest turnout for county’s mid-year elections"]
ELECTIONS - Jackie Showers stands outside the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Office Tuesday evening.
