Early Voting begins today for Aug. 26 Primary

 

BY RALPH MORROW

MANAGING EDITOR

There’s a possibility of 50,000 Monroe County voters this fall, but we know that’s a distant figure of what will really happen. Of that number of registered voters, more than 11,000 people have requested absentee ballots and received them a few weeks ago. They could have already marked their ballots and returned them to the Supervisor of Elections.

No matter how many exercise their privilege by absentee voting, the rest will have an opportunity beginning today with 13 days of Early Voting leading up to the Aug. 26 Primary, when all the votes will be tallied. Registered voters can Early vote from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. today through Aug. 23 at three Supervisor of Elections offices, including in Key West at 530 Whitehead St., and at public libraries in Big Pine Key and Islamorada. The other Elections offices are in Marathon and Key Largo.

As this is a Primary, members of the Republican and Democratic parties will select candidates to run against the winner of the opposing party’s primary come the General Election on Nov. 4. This happens in the governor’s contest. Republicans vote only for one of their own, as do the Democrats. It may seem as if Gov. Rick Scott and Charlie Christ are unopposed as their parties’ candidate, but each has at least one opponent in the Primary.

In the Board of County Commissioners, the Republicans will decide between George Neugent and Danny Coll. The winner will go against the only Democrat candidate, Eleanor McAdams, in the General Election.

However, in non-partisan races, if a candidate gets 50 percent plus one of the votes, that person is elected. If no one gets the majority, the two with the most votes advance to the Nov. 4 General Election.

This applies, for instance, for the race for mayor of Key West, in which incumbent Craig Cates is opposing Margaret Romero and Sloan Bashinsky, as well as the District 1 School Board contest involving Stuart Kessler, Bobby Highsmith and Warren Leamard and the Monroe County Circuit Court judgeships, in which the candidates in Group 4 are Tegan Slaton, Bonnie Helms and Jack Bridges.

However, when just two people are running for a non-partisan position, the Primary winner is elected; such as in the District 4 School Board race between John Dick and Catherine Bosworth and in District 5 between Ron Martin and Dennis Caltagirone, as well as the Circuit Court District 1 judgeship contest between Mark Jones and Donald Barrett.

Voters will also select U.S. House of Representatives nominees as well as candidates for the Mosquito Control District and other offices.

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