You might have heard about a special primary election that took place Tuesday.
I phrase it that way because Voter turnout was only 21.7%. Maybe the fact that it was also April Fool’s Day had something to do with the numbers. Still, turnout was incredibly higher than the turnout of 12% to 15% that had been predicted by Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Tim Bobanic.
Isn’t that kind of, well, shocking?
The hotly contested and sometimes nasty Republican races, resulted in Brian Hodgers beating challengers Bob White and Terry Cronin in the Florida House District 32 GOP primary and Debbie Mayfield beating Marcie Adkins, Tim Thomas and Mark Lightner III, in the Florida Senate District 19 primary.
Hodgers now faces Democrat challenger Juan Hinojosa, while Mayfield goes up against Democrat Vance Ahrens in the June 10 general election.
There were seven candidates who ran in the two elections and lots of money was spent on campaigns. There was also the issue of Mayfield running again for the seat that she was termed out of in November. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that Mayfield’s short break in service made her eligible to run again.
These are elections for local legislators who will be representing us in Tallahassee on matters important to Brevard County.
But, in the end, it seemed many of us didn’t care enough to go out and vote. That brings me to the Question of the Week:
Did you vote in Tuesday’s primary and will you vote on June 10? Why or why not?
You can simply cast your votes on the ballots above.
You can scan the QR code that is hopefully on the print edition page or go to https://www.floridatoday.com/opinions-columns/.
Please leave a comment telling us why you did or did not participate in the primary and why you do or do not plan to vote on June 10th. In order for your comment or email to be published on our website and in next week’s print edition, you must include your first and last name.
You can also shoot me an email with “VOTE” in the subject line. I look forward to reading your responses.
Last Sunday I asked if you believed local law enforcement agencies should be trained and authorized to make immigration-related arrests?
The results of the poll are:
Should local law enforcement agencies be trained and authorized to make immigration-related arrests?
No: 50 percent
Yes: 48.74 percent
I don’t care | It doesn’t matter to me: 1.26 percent
Here is what you had to say:
Florida voters (Republicans in particular) voted to empower Trump to deport millions. Our entire political system in Florida supports this. There are maybe millions of us who think the deportation of non-criminals needs to be limited. The fact that a City council reversed itself because they would be removed shows that they are cowards who have no principals.
In Brevard county, I wouldn’t be surprised if our Sheriff posted pictures of the arrested immigrants. Nor would I be surprised if he encourage citizens to turn in immigrants or even honor those who turn people in.
— Anthony Carollo
I believe law enforcement is law enforcement and criminals are criminals. It is against the law to enter this country illegally (8 U.S. Code § 1325 – Improper entry by alien) and as such it is the responsibility of law enforcement to uphold the law, all laws.
— Jan Alfiere
Now a 15 minute traffic stop can become a two-hour arrest and paperwork work exercise taking a police officer off the street doing what he is supposed to do providing a safe environment for us
— Leonard Shaffer
We pay our police to serve and protect our communities. They are responsible for enforcing the laws of our communities. Immigration is not the purview of local law enforcement.
— Regina Grieco
Absolutely. All law enforcement agencies should work together to uphold local, state and federal laws
— Robert Notman
Absolutely not!! If you need help google Immigrant legal resource center
— Donna Kearns
My answer is no. There isn’t adequate staffing in our agencies now or ever to do the job they’re supposed to do let alone add to it. I want to be kept safe on our roads and from the bad guys who are citizens of the U.S. ICE agents should be a separate agency.
— Karen Naberhaus
It would be like living under full gestapo regime.
— E.L. Clarke
Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @johnalbertorres.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Turnout for this week’s special primary election was very low