Jacob Ogles
While the results don’t count for anything, Karen Castor Dentel was the top vote-getter in the Orange County Election Supervisor Primary.
The former Representative was the top Democrat as far as votes cast in a canceled Democratic Primary. Some 37,728 votes were cast for Castor Dentel, more than double the 15,663 votes cast for former Orange County Democratic Party Chair Wes Hodge. Realtor Sunshine Linda-Marie Grund received 8,001 votes, while former Pinellas Supervisor of Elections candidate Dan Helm received 6,004 votes.
The election results were not published on election night, but tabulations were provided to Florida Politics following a public records request.
But the results matter little, other than as a barometer of support each candidate already holds as they look to November.
That’s because Helm early this year successfully sued to have no-party candidate Cynthia Harris tossed from the ballot. Judge Lisa Munyon days before the Democratic Primary ruled Harris should be disqualified for a failure to timely pay her qualification fee.
That left only Democrats in the race, and Florida’s Constitution requires an open Primary if the race will determine the ultimate officeholder. Only Democrats registered in Orange County could vote in the Aug. 20 Primary won by Castor Dentel, and early voting had already begun by the time of Munyon’s ruling.
The election has now been rescheduled to coincide with the Nov. 5 General Election. Then, all registered voters can cast ballots. This likely means a higher turnout will vote than were expected to do so in the Aug. 20 Primary. All candidates for the Primary automatically advance to that race.
Notably, the candidates all largely exhausted the funds raised for the Aug. 20 Primary, not knowing the results would be thrown out. Castor Dentel spent nearly $149,000 on the race, compared to about $63,000 by Hodge, about $12,000 by Grund and more than $15,000 by Helm. Harris reported less than $8,000 in expenditures before her disqualification, but had not expected to appear on the ballot until a November race against the nominee.
