St Johns County has 150,948 registered voters, but you would not know it by today’s Primary Election turnout, according to records reported to Historic City News by Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes.
For all the mailers, yard signs, billboards and promotional materials distributed during this primary, with e-mail messages, facebook posts and tweets on twitter, the fevered pitch and accusatory tone in several hotly contested races, the only person that matters apparently is not interested … the voter.
All of the county’s Constitutional officers were elected or re-elected without opposition; there were no campaigns for Sheriff, Tax Collector, Clerk of Court, Property Appraiser, or, Supervisor of Elections. No judicial seats drew opposition here, either.
Over 30% of mailed ballots are still not returned; 7294 mailed and only 5054 voted.
Only 7,496 registered voters voted during the week of Early Voting.
And, with only 3 hours left on the clock until the polls close at 7:00 p.m., only 10,696 in-person ballots have been cast at the precinct.
Some local and district races are being decided today, and others could, Oakes pointed out. Today, by as little as one vote, the commissioner that will replace Mark Miner in District 3 will be elected to serve for the next four years.
Likewise some non-partisan races such as the St Augustine City Commission Seat that has four candidates running, could result in a decision if any one of the candidates garners 50% of the votes, plus 1.
If you haven’t voted, stop reading this and get to your precinct. If you haven’t voted by 7:00 p.m. tonight, shame on you; and, I don’t want to hear one peep about the awful politicians that were elected today.