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Many Hernando voters not waiting till Tuesday to cast primary ballots

 
Poll deputy James Willis, right, greets voters Monday at the Supervisor of Elections’ Forest Oaks location in Spring Hill. By midweek, more than 1,200 residents had visited one of the four early voting sites to make their selections.
Poll deputy James Willis, right, greets voters Monday at the Supervisor of Elections’ Forest Oaks location in Spring Hill. By midweek, more than 1,200 residents had visited one of the four early voting sites to make their selections.
Published Aug. 24, 2016

Hernando County voters have not been waiting for Tuesday's formal primary election day to make their voting choices known.

By midweek, more than 14,400 voters already had cast their ballots by mail, out of the 28,000 ballots Supervisor of Elections Shirley Anderson sent out, and another 1,200 residents had visited one of the four early voting sites to make their selections. In the Wellington community, which had the highest pre-election vote percentage earlier this week, nearly 23 percent of the registered voters already had done their civic duty.

While early voting continues through Saturday, elections officials are preparing for the many voters who will wait to follow the traditional voting process by going to their home precincts between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday. There are plenty of registered voters in Hernando who can still cast ballots, with the most recent registration numbers showing a total of 42,723 registered Democrats in the county, 51,970 Republicans and 33,477 others.

The election buzz has been impossible to ignore, with candidate fliers filling mailboxes, TV commercials, robocalls on phone lines, blasts on social media and campaign signs everywhere. The primary, in which voters choose among candidates of their own party or among no-party candidates in nonpartisan elections, will decide the final lineup for the November general election, which will also include the race for U.S. president.

For Republicans, primary choices include nominees for the hotly contested District 1 and District 5 County Commission seats, picking the party nominee for a new representative in the 11th Congressional District, a new Republican state committeeman and a nominee for the U.S. Senate.

Democrats and Libertarians will choose a nominee for U.S. Senate.

All voters, regardless of party affiliation, will vote in the nonpartisan race for county judge and in the District 2 and District 4 School Board races. The School Board races will be decided in the primary if any of the multiple candidates gets more than 50 percent of the vote for their seat; if not, the top two vote-getters will appear on the ballot in November.

A state constitutional amendment concerning tax exemptions on renewable energy equipment is also on the primary ballot.

Contact Barbara Behrendt at bbehrendt@tampabay.com or (352) 848-1434.