Every vote counts

Every vote counts, no matter when it is counted.

If you don’t believe that, just ask Ben Jerry Hudson and Kurvin Qualls after the race for mayor of the Town of Jay.

Most news outlets called the race when 100 percent of the precincts were in and Ben Jerry Hudson was leading Jay Mayor Kurvin Qualls by a slim one-vote margin.

Judge Ross Bilbrey announced at Bodenstein’s office on Tuesday night when the vote total was reported as 25,501, that there were still votes to be counted from a touch screen.

Late Tuesday night, around 10:49 p.m., the last touch screen was counted and six votes were added to the unofficial totals, which included the shift in the Jay Mayor’s race.

“During the collection of voting materials and machines a misunderstanding took place between the Election Board at Jay and the pick up team,” Bodenstein said. “We got that misunderstanding cleared up and counted all the votes in the Mayor’s race.”

Hudson is not going to ask for a recount in the election and under Florida Law there is not an automatic recount unless there is a difference of one half of one percent or less.

“I was mayor when I went to bed and then at 9 a.m. on Wednesday I wasn’t the mayor anymore,” Hudson said following the election. “At first this looked rotten to the core, but Ms. Bodenstein explained it all to me and what happened.

“But this was nothing against Kurvin, I am retired and I have time to invest. Kurvin has a full time job and has to make a living.”

Bodenstein said she had a feeling this year about a close election, but she didn’t dream of anything like this.

She was figuring there might have been a tie or something in a race like the Jay City County where you could vote for two of the three candidates on the ballot.

In the race for Jay City Council Shon Owens was the top vote getter with 86 votes followed by Charles “Chubby” Haveard with 79 and Jackie Stewart-Ard with 68.

But Jay was not immune to tight local races.

In the race for the Ward three City Council seat in Milton, incumbent Grady Hester edged Alan Lowery by just 12 votes, 608 to 596.

Hester who has served as a city councilman for 16 years didn’t expect the race to be 12-vote difference when the night was over.

“This is about as close of a race as you want to go through,” Hester said at the Supervisor of Elections office Tuesday night. “I think some of it had to do with the turnout and the electoral mentality of the people.”

Lowery, a newcomer to the political arena after working as a firefighter is not so sure he wants to go though this again.

“I am going to have to think long and hard about doing this again, but I won’t rule it out,” Lowery said. “I thought the people were ready for a change and I worked hard to give them that opportunity.

“If I didn’t do anything else I made him meet the public and re-educate himself to how they feel on certain issue.”

Lowrey, who worked at the elections office previously, said he knows how accurate they are in the office and there was no need for him to see a recount despite the slim margin.

Voter apathy ran rampant in Santa Rosa County on Tuesday for the August Primary, but that didn’t keep some races from being closer than many expected.

With 25,507 of the 111,548 registered voters in Santa Rosa County casting a ballot, Tuesday’s turnout was below 22.8 percent.

Friday Santa Rosa Supervisor of Elections Ann Bodenstein and her office certified the election after the canvassing board went through the provisional ballots due to an address questions or some other issue.

“If there is a question about someone being able to vote, we want to give them that opportunity to do so,” Bodenstein said. “But people must remember an election is not official until all the votes are counted.

“The final vote is not just the strips on the doors. We have to add in the absentees and early voting as well.”

In other state races:

Circuit Judge Circuit 1 Group 3 race Michael Flowers garnered 33,081 votes and look to be headed off for a runoff with Alishia W. McDonald in the non-partisan race. McDonald garnered 16,080 votes to lead the second pack followed by Mike Lawson withy 14,385, Clint Davis 12,225, Ken Brooks with 10,732, and Robert E. McGill with 10,556.

In statewide races Marco Rubio got 84 percent of the votes in the Republican Primary for the U.S. Senate Seat, while Kendrick B. Meek earned 56.4 percent in the Democratic Primary.

Alex Sink dominated the Democratic Primary with 76.9 percent of the vote, while it was Rick Scott edging Bill McCollum in the Republican Primary 46 percent to 43 percent.

In the race for Attorney General Pam Bondi leads the Republican Primary with 38 percent of the vote with Pensacola's Holly Benson finishing a distant third with 28 percent.

On the Democratic side for Attorney General, Dan Gelber defeated Dave Aronberg 60 percent to 40 percent.

Santa Rosa County Vote Totals

County Commissioners District 2

Bob Cole (I) 6,762 38.69%

Claude Duvall 5,074 29.03%

Ron Scott  3,855 22.06%

Clifton Wheeler 1,785 10.21%

County Commissioners District 4

Jim Melvin 8,895 38.03%

Gordon Goodin (I) 7,474 31.95%

Ruth Dupont Esser 4,274 18.27%

Mark Goode 2,747 11.74%

School Board Dist. 1

Diane Scott (I) 11,841 51.07%

Dale Anderson 9,196 39.66%

Shepherd Iverson 2,149 9.27%

School Board Dist. 3

Diane Coleman (I) 12,342 54.36%

Carol Boston 10,363 45.64%

School Board Dist. 5

Scott Peden 11,876 52.90%

Tom Naile 10,574 47.10%

Town of Jay Mayor

Kurvin Qualls (I) 72 50.35%

Ben Jerry Hudson 71 49.65%

Town of Jay Council

(Top 2)

Shon Owens 86 36.91%

Charles Haveard 79 33.91%

Jackie Stewart-Ard 68 29.18%

City of Milton Ward 3

Grady Hester (I) 608 50.50%

Alan Lowery 596 49.50%