A.G. Gancarski
With less than three hours until polls close in the Jacksonville “First Election”, it looks like we are approaching parity in terms of party turnout. As of 4:00 PM, the Democrats are still maintaining their advantage, yet the margin (67,005 to 64,621) has tightened since polls opened at 7:00 this morning. If historic trends hold, Democrats look to widen their lead during the last three hours of voting, but what appears certain is that neither party will have a significant turnout advantage.
There was some talk among local political insiders as late as this morning that the Early Voting lead the Democrats have built would be enough to perhaps get Alvin Brown above 50%, precluding a runoff. As Republican turnout has been strong all day, though, that talk seems to have subsided.
The only major race certain to be decided tonight is the Supervisor of Elections struggle between Mike Hogan and Tracie Davis. The seven-way Sheriff’s race and the four-way Mayoral battle both look almost certain to reach runoffs. As ever, we will keep you posted, both on the site with updates of both returns and on-the-scene reports from watch parties for the three major Mayoral candidates, as well as on WJCT-FM, where Melissa Ross and I will be breaking down the results as they come in starting at 7:00 PM.
