Florida primary live updates: Results rolling in for Collier County races
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Polls opened in Southwest Florida for the Aug. 23 Florida primary at 7 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m.
The primary included voting for three Collier County School Board seats, and two closed Republican primaries will determine November's candidates for two Collier County Commission seats.
The Orange Blossom Drive headquarters library saw a slow, steady flow of voters all day.
LIVE ELECTION RESULTS: See latest results for local and statewide races
Election 2022: Here's what you need to know about Tuesday's primary in Collier County
Collier school board races to runoffs
Three GOP-endorsed candidates for Collier County school board have forced runoffs with incumbent school board members in November.
Kelly Lichter will face Jen Mitchell, Jerry Rutherford will face Jory Westberry, and Timothy Mosier will face Roy Terry in the Nov. 8 general election.
Lichter received 46.6% of the primary vote compared to Mitchell’s 38.2%. Rutherford got 44.6% compared to Westberry’s 33.1 %, and Mosier received 39.6% compared to Terry’s 27.4%.
Chris Hall takes District 2 GOP primary
Chris Hall won the Republican primary for Collier Commission District 2, representing North Naples.
Hall received 50.1% of the vote with Nancy Lewis and Reg Buxton following with 28.2% and 15.9%, respectively. Reg Buxton garnered 15.9% compared to 5.9% of the votes cast for Gerald Lefebvre.
The District 2 seat had been held by Commissioner Andy Solis, who did not run for reelection.
Penny Taylor unseated in GOP primary
Newcomer Dan Kowal has unseated Collier Commissioner Penny Taylor to win the Republican primary for District 4.
Kowal received 42% of the vote, and Taylor received 23.3%. Former Naples Councilwoman Michelle McLeod received 29.4% of the vote compared to 5.3% for Daija Hinojosa.
Diaz-Balart wins Republican primary for 26th Congressional District
U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a 19-year incumbent, cruised to victory in the Republican primary for Florida’s 26th Congressional District. He defeated Darren Aquino of Naples, a longshot challenger who largely self-funded his campaign. The Associated Press called the race at 7:46 p.m., with 71 percent of precincts reporting and Diaz-Balart holding 83 percent of the vote.
Diaz-Blart will face off in the general election against Christine Olivo, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.
— Dan Glaun
Primary voting in its final push
The Orange Blossom Drive headquarters library was getting a slow, but steady, influx of voters all day, according to Diane Pulito. And she would know.
She had been stationed in front of it with her signs for District 2 Collier County Commission candidate Nancy Lewis since 7:10 a.m.
“I’ve got an apple in my car and I think it’s applesauce now,” she said. Pulito, of New Britain, Connecticut, had forsaken her late summer in the temperate North to support Gov. Ron DeSantis in his reelection race and to work for Lewis: “I’m for Nancy because she believes we should not become another Miami."
She also was working for her children, who had moved to Florida from Pennsylvania last year, she said
“I love our governor. This is for their futures.”
Collier County school board incumbent Jen Mitchell was there to greet people entering the library as well, and she was about to get some relief from Gulf Coast High School teacher Kristan Welty: “She really cares about the schools and she really supports them.”
In fact, the school board races were top of mind for one of the voters questioned, too.
“It’s very important to know what our teachers are teaching the kids,” said Maria Peccia, who had come with her husband to vote. They too were from the Northeast – Delaware— and spend time in both place:
“We just happened to be in Florida, so we thought we’d come in person,” said Rich Peccia.
Brandyn Carter said she had come because “I don’t like the direction Florida is going in.” And she did like voting in person. “I’ve always just liked the act of going in and voting,” she said.
She would not be part of a large voter turnout, however. An hour and 40 minutes from closing, polls had registered 70,424 votes, about 28.2% of the number of eligible voters here.
And the half-dozen campaigners waiting to cultivate the last-minute undecided there were going to have leave the marketing up to the flock of candidate signs stationed along Orange Blossom Drive. Rain was coming in fast.
Elections office: Smooth day at the polls
“Our day is going well,” said Jennifer Edwards, Collier County supervisor of elections shortly after noon. “I wish the turnout was a little higher. People are just not getting out to vote. Maybe they will later in the afternoon.”
By 1 p.m. the county had counted 24%, which later inched up to 25%, of the eligible voters, or 62,855 of its eligible 249,758 voters.
“Usually it’s in the 30s for a primary election,” Edwards said. “The mid-term election in 2018 the turnout was 34 percent.”
Presidential election years are always higher, she said: “The 2020 primary brought out 37 percent.”
The mechanics of the election were running “really smoothly,” she said. “Our workers are so well trained and doing a wonderful job, and I’m really proud of everybody. They’re having a good day.”
— Harriet Howard Heithaus
Voters trickle into the polls
St. Ann Catholic Church in Old Naples was election morning central for county commission candidates, but voters were a rare commodity.
Because of the four-way Republican primary for the District 4 seat on the Collier County Board of Commissioners, candidates had been making pilgrimages to what might be considered voter hot spots.
On that list: St. Ann, St. John’s Episcopal, Norris Community Center.
The candidates were going to see a lot of each other, suggested District 4 commission candidate Dan Kowal, who was about to hand off his signs to a volunteer: “It’s been a pretty small turnout so far.”
He was sanguine about the small morning crowd he had seen: “If you were retired, would you get up at 7 to vote when you had all day to do it?” He joked.
Kowal said he expected more voters after work hours, before the polls close at 7 p. m.
“It’s no 2016 or 2020,” observed Jacquie Walter, holding a quartet of signs for candidate Michelle McLeod. But she was happy to wave and answer questions for passersby, and is a seasoned poll pro by her own admission: “My first political campaign was when I was 12.”
Nearby, Daija Hinojosa had unfurled her own banner along Third Street South with the help of Ashley Jenkins. Hinojosa’s chief rival, incumbent Penny Taylor, had already been to the church.
Hinojosa has a busy day, one that will end with what she hopes is a victory party that she has assembled herself.
“I wanted to do it completely differently,” she said. “I talked with a lot of people about how they had done their campaigns. And then I did the exact opposite.”
But Jenkins said they trusted their combination of shoe-leather campaigning and social media outreach: “We have a good feeling about this.”
Farther north, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Park Shore, any vestiges of campaigning were gone by late morning. People drifted in and out alone or in pairs, sometimes invisible because of the entries on two sides of the church.
Still, it was a tradition to cast his vote on Election Day rather than take the mail-in option, said Vincent Kuttemperoor as he and his wife made their way to the church.
“I always do it this way. It’s my responsibility.”
— Harriet Howard Heithaus
Primary election day in Florida
It's Election Day in Florida and voters are headed to the polls to cast ballots in local and statewide primary and nonpartisan races.
In local races, Collier County school board, commission seats and a county judgeship are up for grabs.
Several statewide, legislative and congressional seats are also up for election.
The winners of partisan primary races advance to the general election on Nov. 8. In nonpartisan general election races where no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two compete in a runoff on Nov. 8.
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7 a.m. | Polls are open! What to know if you're voting in Florida, Collier
Polls open at 7 a.m. and will remain open till 7 p.m. See polling locations in Florida. Voters in line by 7 p.m. will be permitted to cast a ballot.
Voters must cast their votes on their assigned precinct, which is available at colliervotes.gov using the Precinct Finder. Sample ballots are available at colliervotes.gov/Sample-Ballots.
Previous coverage:
Collier School Board candidate faces backlash over campaign's antisemitic worker
Collier County School Board District 1: Three candidates vying for seat
Collier School Board District 3 features incumbent, former member and a newcomer
Penny Taylor faces 4 challengers for District 4 seat on Collier County Commission
Collier County School Board District 5: Crowded race could mean no decision in primary
District 26 election: Incumbent Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart faces Darren Aquino, Christine Olivo
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Collier County voting results: 2022 Primary Election Day in Florida
