Supervisor reports the 2022 Election was a success

St Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes updated local Historic City News reporters on the outcome of the November 8, 2022, General Election now that all the dust has settled.  Oakes is calling the election in St Johns County “a success” with 64.8 percent of registered voters turning out to vote.

With the election results certified, here’s how Oakes reports the voting played out:

• 31,686 Vote-by-mail Ballots
• 54,190 Early Voting Ballots 
• 59,135 Election Day Ballots

“A heartfelt thank you to the incredible Elections team of approximately 500 staff and volunteers that were required to conduct the election. We are so grateful for your dedication and service to St Johns County and our community,” Oakes said.  “Front desk staff, warehouse staff, voting technicians, poll workers, vote-by-mail staff, IT and GIS staff, temporary staff, and, of course, our community partners who allowed us to use their locations to be used as polling places, each made it into my Thanksgiving prayers.”

Our polling places were busy on Election Day. All locations were fully staffed with workers and plenty of ballots. Upon opening, many of our locations had lines, but that is normal with so many voters stopping by to vote on their way to work. Our poll workers really appreciated voter patience throughout the day as they worked diligently to process ballots and get voters in and out as quickly as possible. A few of our locations even had lines at 7:00 p.m., but every voter in line was able to cast their ballot before heading home for the night and one location even stayed until 7:45 p.m. to ensure every vote was counted. Eight of our precincts processed over 2,000 voters on election day.

Some of our busiest Election Day locations included:

• 2,414    Village Church, 4229 Pacetti Rd St Augustine
• 2,387    Celebration Lutheran Church, 810 Roberts Rd St Johns
• 2,327    St Francis in the Field, 895 Palm Valley Rd. Ponte Vedra Beach
• 2,191    The Clubhouse at Beacon Lake, 850 Beacon Lake Parkway St Augustine
• 2,158    Switzerland Community Church, 2179 SR 13 N. St Johns
• 2,058    Good News Church, 1357 Wildwood Dr. St Augustine
• 2,028    RiverHouse at RiverTown, 140 Landing St St Johns
• 2,010    The Palencia Club, 600 Palencia Club Dr. St Augustine

Oakes reported that there were many long hours on the campaign trail, so she knew that there were a lot of weary people on Election night who were happy to see 7:00 p.m. arrive. “My congratulations to those who won their races and will soon begin their elected terms,” Oakes said.

There will be a short break for the holidays, but Oakes says 2023 is a year of planning for the 2024 elections and implementing new list maintenance laws to improve the accuracy of our voter rolls.  There will be three elections in 2024, according to Oakes, including the March Presidential Preference Primary, the August Primary, and the November General Election.

“With such a busy year, we cannot start planning soon enough to ensure St Johns County voters have safe, accessible, and successful elections,” Oakes cautions.  “We delivered two safe, transparent, and accessible elections in 2022, and we are determined to do that again next year.”