🔴🔵It's primary election day

🔴🔵Good Primary Election Day to you all,

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice," Rush's Geddy Lee famously told us in 1980 .

My recommendation: Make a choice to participate in democracy ... and don't fret if you requested a mail-in ballot but haven't mailed it yet. No judgment here. You can take the ballot in signed and sealed envelope directly to the Supervisor of Elections Office no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day (today, Aug. 20).

Not to overstate the obvious: Don't attempt to send the VBM ballot by mail because you will verily miss the deadline. On Election Day, bring it to the Supervisor of Elections Office, 1898 E. Burleigh Blvd., Tavares. It is the only drop off location for your Vote-by-Mail ballot.

🪱How many early birds voted ahead of election day?

In Lake County, 16,867 Republican residents have voted early along 9,706 registered Democrats. Among those with Independent or other party affiliation, 267 voted, and 3,126 with no party affiliation showed up early to Lake County voting locations.

The latest count of total Lake County voters? Around 243,267 are eligible to vote.

The mail-in ballots are tallied at 18,127, meaning an estimated 30,031 total voters have turned in their ballots early; around 12.4% of eligible voters in Lake County. This year's early count is a little under (so far) the 2022 primary election results in Lake County, which had an estimated 32,845 votes in before election day.

A recap of recent news about the primary election

It's been an eventful lead-up to the primary. Anthony Sabatini, who's never been a stranger to controversy , dropped out of the U.S, House of Representatives race on June 13 and into the crowded District 1 County Commission contest. Sabatini did this when former President Donald Trump endorsed longtime congressional incumbent Daniel Webster.

At the 11th hour of the property appraiser race, Tax Collector David Jordan's brother, Mark Jordan — a hospital board member and former firefighter and paramedic for the city of Leesburg — signed up for the ticket, and Baker has alleged that brother David tipped him off. Local politicians, including Sabatini, cried foul .

Read about the litigious fallout here .

Sabatini is running against incumbent Doug Shields for county commission. Lake County citizens involved with conservation efforts urged non-Republican voters to switch parties to vote for him . More than 1,000 more Republicans voted since 2022 primary.

Accusations of dirty tactics arose during a voter sign debacle that's been ongoing (see mailbag letters below). Read about other candidates in the race here .

📧Tuesday mailbag: More signs of trouble

Volunteers for Lake County candidates continued to voice complaints about signs being obscured or moved.

Said one reader who asked not to be identified: "I was working for the Board of Elections at Venetian Center. Our deputy had to go talk to one of (Anthony) Sabatini's people for moving their signs to in front of the other person running against him to cover their sign.

The board was notified but not Sabatini's office. The problem we have is that if its outside the 150-foot limit we have no legal right to stop them, but they don't always know that. The man at Venetian did leave and our deputy didn't see him again."

From Ashley McCormick: "Hello, I know the Daily Commercial recently did an article about sign interference in Lake County, and we are having more of that right now. My husband, Zach McCormick, is running for circuit judge here in the Fifth Judicial Circuit, and in the last 48 hours we’ve had over 20 of our signs stolen from local businesses, residences and even early voting locations.

I just discovered they were taken from the supervisor of elections office as well. I spoke to them today ... told me to call the sheriff's office, who kinda just gave me a (shrug emoji) response. I think because the election is tomorrow there’s not much they can do, but it is illegal and unethical."

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Bye for now!

JG

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: 🔴🔵It's primary election day