40 percent of county voters head to the polls Tuesday
Forty percent of all registered voters in Lee County cast ballots in the general election today, an improvement over the primary election when just over 23 percent of voters turned out.
Of the 347,207 registered voters in Lee, 138,965 cast their ballots on election day or during early voting, which was offered for two weeks.
Republicans ruled the roost in all of the major state races, while Lee County saw incumbents retain their county commission seats.
Also locally, voters decided to deny the enactment of Amendment 4, the so-called “Hometown Democracy” amendment by more than 50,000 votes; Voters also decided to support revising the class size amendment, Amendment 8, by more than 22,000 votes.
Voters in the Cape said they felt compelled to vote on most, if not all, of the races, as each was equally important to Florida, and the Cape.
Leo Carty, a Cape resident for a decade, said he voted in all of the major state races, and that the class size amendment was important to him and his family.
He also said negative campaign advertising did not influence his decisions.
“If you want to talk about the issues, then talk about the issues,” he said. “It’s not cool to focus on things that aren’t important.”
Twenty-year Cape resident Richard Peterson said Amendment 4 stood out to him, as did most of the races, locally and statewide.
About Amendment 4 Peterson said, “The idea of having local control in your own backyard is important.”
Eileen Burns, a Cape resident since 1985, said she didn’t vote on any of the local races because she didn’t feel educated enough on the candidates.
Instead she voted for all the major state races, and was not swayed by any of the negative campaigning over the last few weeks.
“I wasn’t swayed by any of it,” Burns said. “The candidates I liked stayed with the issues.”
Dorothy Ramos, a 17-year Cape resident, said negative campaigning only made her want to dig into the candidates deeper by doing her own research.
She said the class size amendment was one of the most important votes for her because of her daughter.
“What the kids are going to learn really depends on the size of the class,” Ramos said.
She also added that she tried to get her friends and relatives interested in this year’s campaign season.
“I’ve been telling people how important it is, and I’m happy that it looks like more people got out to vote,” Ramos said.
Lee County Supervisor of Elections Sharon Harrington did not return calls for comment.