Scott Powers
More than 2,000 absentee ballots already have been returned in the upcoming special Republican primary election for House District 44 in west Orange County.
The office of Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles reported Tuesday afternoon that 7,175 absentee ballots have been requested and mailed out for the contest, and 2,063 already have been filled out and returned, two weeks out from the Aug. 15 primary election.
There are 44,705 Republican voters in HD 44, which covers southwest Orange including the suburbs of Windermere, Winter Garden, and Ocoee, and was vacated this spring when Republican former state Rep. Eric Eisnaugle resigned.
The GOP race features four candidates: Dr. Usha Jain, Bobby Olszewski, John Newstreet and Bruno Portigliatti. There is only one Democrat running, Paul Chandler, so he’ll face the winner in the Oct. 10 special general election.
Early voting starts this Saturday and runs through Saturday, Aug. 12. Three early voting stations will be open from 10 am. to 6 p.m. through those eight days: the Southwest Library near the intersection of Dr. Phillips Boulevard and Sand Lake Road; the Orange County National Golf Center and Lodge in Winter Garden; and the Supervisor of Elections Office, on Kaley Street south of downtown Orlando.
Cowles said it is too early to make any clear projections on the voter turnout for the GOP primary, but said he’s expecting it to be in the low teens of percentage, of the 44,705 Republicans.
Besides the usual patterns of low turnouts for special elections and district primaries, Cowles cited a few others: Election Day also is the second day of school for Orange County Public Schools, so many families are focusing on school. The campaigns are getting nasty, which can turn off voters.
The 2,063 returned ballots already represents 4.6 percent of the eligible party members. If all the absentee ballots were filled out and returned, that would amount to 16 percent.
