Final unofficial election results for all Treasure Coast counties were released Tuesday evening.
Voters decided during the primary who will fill seats on county commissions, school boards, city councils and city commissions. Some candidates, who qualified to run but ended up without opposition, were automatically elected. Some who survive the partisan primaries move on to the Nov. 5 general election.
And in some contests, notably school boards, Tuesday's winners will get ready for his or her new term.
Results: Check out results coming in across the Treasure Coast
8:30 p.m.: Final, unofficial election results were released for all three Treasure Coast counties. See the results for individual races here:
8:10 p.m.:
Following the VR Systems accessibility issue, the Indian River County Supervisor of Elections website began showing completely reported for all votes, except vote-by-mail ballots, which remained partially reported.
St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections website also began showing complete reporting for early votes with Election Day and mail-in-ballots partially reported.
7:07 p.m. :
VR Systems, the software company that runs the supervisor of elections office websites, informed the St. Lucie County Elections Supervisor Gertrude Walker at around 6:20 p.m. that its system was having issues impacting website accessibility.
This issue impacted election offices across Florida, including Indian River and St. Lucie counties.
Primary Election 2024: Widespread issues impacting St. Lucie, Indian River counties election result websites
7 p.m. :
Polls have closed in Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie counties.
4:51 p.m. :
Voters showed up to cast their Election Day ballots at the Havert L. Fenn Center in Fort Pierce.
"When it's my time to vote, my duty is to vote," said Brenda Bennett, who said she participates in each election. Bennett showed up for Kamala Harris and St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson, Bennett said.
3:30 p.m.:
Outside the polling place at the Port St. Lucie Community Center across the street from City Hall and the Port St. Lucie Police Station, a trickle of voters came and went around 3:15 p.m. The parking lot was about half full, and plenty of campaign signs were up in the area.
Paula Lewis, 74, a former Port St. Lucie City Council member and former St. Lucie County Commissioner who served several terms, cast a ballot Tuesday. Lewis said the voting process was smooth.
“The folks were so helpful,” Lewis said. “It was amazing.”
Another person who voted was Christine Wilkerson, 52, who said the precinct was not crowded, and the process was quick and easy.
Wilkerson said offices related to the St. Lucie County Sheriff and St. Lucie County School District were particularly important to her this year.
“I have a lot of friends with smaller children, so that's mainly why I signed up to vote because my friends have kids in school, so it's important to them,” Wilkerson said.
Linda Creamer, 76, said the most important issues to her on the ballot are related to “education and law and order.”
The process itself, she said, was “pretty straightforward.”
“I had already figured out by reading who I was going to vote for,” Creamer said.
Florida primary election guide: All you need to know about the candidates in Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River
In their own words: Indian River County primary candidates reply to questionnaires
In their own words: St. Lucie County primary candidates reply to questionnaires
In their own words: Martin County primary candidates reply to questionnaires
3 p.m.: The St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections reported 79 people had voted as of 3 p.m. at the polling location for precincts 14 and 24 at Fort Pierce Westwood Academy at 1801 Panther Lane in Fort Pierce.
Antonio Seymour, who voted there, told TCPalm it's always important to exercise the right to vote. "People died for our right to vote," he said. Seymour said he often tells his daughter about the sacrifice of Civil Rights Era figures. Seymour said he votes for "people that are for the people, even the small people, the people that are not rich or all of that other stuff."
Elsewhere in St. Lucie County, poll workers said 219 people had voted as of 3 p.m. at the polling location for precinct 9 at the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum at 3300 N. A1A, north of Fort Pierce.
12:30 p.m.: Voting had been steady at the polling location for precinct 2 at TC3 Church, 20 N.E. Dixie Highway in Stuart. Poll workers said 145 people had voted as of 10:15 a.m.
"I vote all the time," said Stuart resident Alex Ziemkiewicz. He said people have to vote if they want a say in what goes on where they live.
Stuart resident Carly Kanott said she voted because she was tired of the way the county is going and wants less high-density housing, as well as term limits for Martin County commissioners.
Noon: St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker told TCPalm she had expected much higher turnout for the primary and hoped it would pick up later in the day.
“It just seems like very low turnout,” Walker said. “But I’m aways hopefully. We always get the biggest turnout of the day between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.”
Voter turnout was only about 15% by noon, she said. To give perspective, that amount was 23% by the end of the primary in 2022 (a non-presidential election year) and 26% by the end of the primary in 2020 (a presidential election year).
Walker called her counterparts in Ocala and Palm Beach and was reassured it wasn’t just St. Lucie County; other counties in Florida also were experiencing low turnout Tuesday morning.
She noted there was less vote-by-mail for this primary than normal, but there was more early voting for this primary than normal.
11:30 a.m.: Voter turnout was slowly picking up at the polling locations for precincts 89 and 90 at Tradition Town Hall at 10799 S.W. Civic Lane in Port St. Lucie. Both precincts had 324 voters cast their ballots in person on Election Day as of 11:22 a.m., according to the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections website.
Fort Pierce resident Denise Helms was campaigning for incumbent St. Lucie County Property Appraiser Michelle Franklin. Helms took the day off work to campaign for Franklin and had been at the precinct since 6:30 a.m. Republican St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office candidate Keith Pearson and U.S. Congressman Brian Mast also were there greeting voters.
11 a.m.: Martin County Elections Supervisor Vicki Davis told TCPalm, "All the precincts were up and running at 7a.m., and it looks like and sounds like they're having a nice, steady flow at the precincts so far this morning."
In St. Lucie County, voters were trickling in and out of the polling location for precinct 8 at the Midway Road Church of Christ at 3040 W. Midway Road in Fort Pierce. Poll workers said it’s been steady all day without any problems.
10:35 a.m.: Poll workers said several hundred people had voted at the polling location for precinct 25 at the Vero Beach Moose Lodge No. 1822 at 226 43rd Ave.
7:30 a.m.: It was a quiet start to the morning at the polling location for precinct 14 at the School District of Indian River County's J.A. Thompson Administration Center at 6500 57th St. in Vero Beach. Many signs were posted outside in the front of the building, but no candidates were campaigning.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Primary 2024: See election results for Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie
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