Primary in the books

Broward and Palm Beach county voters overwhelmingly prefer voting by mail and were far less likely than usual to vote in person, based on Tuesday’s primary in the era of the new coronavirus. Crowds were nonexistent at precincts most of the day, but thousands of mail-in ballots were delivered in person to Supervisor of Elections offices in both counties. Overall turnout was high.

“Overall, this will go down as the highest turnout primary election in history with most of that driven by voting by mail.” Broward Supervisor of Elections Peter Antonacci said, via his spokesman.

Results from South Florida races on 4B and SunSentinel.com/electionresults

Republican and Democratic voters on Tuesday will take major steps toward deciding the makeup of Florida’s congressional delegation for the next two years. Here are the results of some of the U.S. House primaries in South Florida.

DISTRICT 20: On the Democratic side, incumbent Rep. Alcee Hastings easily defended his seat for the second time against challenger Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. In the Republican race, Vic DeGrammont and Greg Musselwhite remained in a neck-and-neck heat as the results poured in, although the seat in November is likely to go to the winner of the Democratic primary; the district spans the eastern portions of Broward and Palm Beach counties

DISTRICT 21: Incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel won easily over her opponent Guido Weiss. She will be facing a Republican with high social-media name recognition: Laura Loomer, a political activist and conspiracy theorist who was banned from Twitter for criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and her Muslim faith. Loomer was outpacing candidates Christian Acosta, Elizabeth Felton, Aaron Scanlan, Reba Sherrill and Michael Vilardi.

DISTRICT 22: James “Jim” Pruden, a lawyer, pulled ahead in his race to become the Republican who will challenge six-term incumbent Rep. Ted Deutch.

DISTRICT 23: Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, an eight-term incumbent, held off a a challenge from progressive Jennifer Perelman. Perelman practiced corporate law before becoming a full-time mother. On the Republican primary are Michael Kroske, who works for Nations Rent in corporate procurement, and Carla Spalding, a registered nurse and military veteran making her third attempt for Congress. The race was too close to call.

DISTRICT 24: Five-term Democratic incumbent Frederica Wilson crushed challenges by newcomer Sakinha Lehtola, and Ricardo De La Fuente. De La Fuente lives in California and entered congressional races in three states: Florida, California where he lost, and Texas where he won the Democratic primary. He ran against Wilson in 2018, and lost decisively then.

And in districts elsewhere:

DISTRICT 3: A decision by U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., to not seek another term this year has led to a cast-of-thousands race in his North Florida district, which is made up of Alachua, Bradford, Clay, Putnam, Union and part of Marion counties. With the area long represented by Republicans, 10 GOP candidates qualified to run for the seat, along with three Democrats. In the Republican field, Kat Cammack appeared to capture the seat, but the Democratic race was too close to call.

DISTRICT 15: Freshman Republican Congressman Ross Spano is trying to hold off Lakeland City Commissioner Scott Franklin in a heated GOP primary in the district, which is made up of parts of Hillsborough, Polk and Lake counties. Franklin was holding the lead over Spano. Meanwhile, three Democrats — state Rep. Adam Hattersley, Alan Cohn and Jesse Philippe — ran with hopes of flipping the district , and Cohn appeared to capture the race.

DISTRICT 19: With Southwest Florida a Republican stronghold, U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney’s decision to not seek another term this year led to a flood of GOP candidates in the district in Collier and Lee counties. Nine Republicans, including state House members Byron Donalds and Dane Eagle, are seeking the seat, and the race remained too close to call , while Democrat Cindy Lyn Banyai won.