Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Palm Beach, Broward counties see smooth municipal races
Nearly 70% vote by mail in Palm Beach County
Election Day in Palm Beach County went fairly smoothly during its Tuesday’s municipal races, thanks in part to voters overwhelmingly choosing to mail in their ballots.
Following significant vote-by-mail numbers in November’s election, nearly 70% of voters mailed in their ballots, skipping the potential lines and hurdles of in-person voting. On Tuesday, voters cast their ballots in various municipal elections in Palm Beach County, mostly centering on races for mayor and city commission seats.
In the most county’s most contentious match-up, the Delray Beach mayor race between incumbent Shelly Petrolia and Tracy Caruso remained too close to call well after the polls closed.
In Delray Beach’s two city commission races, Adam Frankel and Ryan Boylston both won re-election. Frankel defeated Price Patton for Seat 4, earning a fourth term
in office. Frankel was a commissioner from 2009 to 2015, but had to step away due to term limits. In 2018, he returned and won a third term with 43% of the vote against two opponents.
After ousting Mitch Katz from city commission in the 2018 election, Boylston defeated him once again on Tuesday, winning by a comfortable margin.
Similar to Delray Beach, the two incumbents on the ballot for Boca Raton city council won re-election. Yvette Drucker beat three candidates for Seat C, garnering over 50% of the vote. Drucker was appointed to the seat in October after the seat was vacated by Jeremy Rodgers, who was sent overseas by the Navy in June.
In the race for Seat D, Monica Mayotte won another term, beating Brian Sternberg with over 58% of the vote.
Nineteen of the county’s 39 municipalities held elections on Tuesday, including West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Lantana.
Palm Beach County Elections spokeswoman Judy Lamey said late Tuesday that everything was running smoothly across the precincts and the county hadn’t experienced any notable problems.
Over 62,000 of the county’s 349,000 eligible voters for Tuesday’s election had cast ballots as of 6:30 p.m., equating to 18% turnout. Over 43,000 people voted by mail, while 19,000 voted in person.
Unsurprisingly, voter turnout was significantly lower than in November’s Presidential Election, when 778,000 cast ballots, equating to 76% turnout. Vote-by-mail numbers were higher for Tuesday’s election, however, with 70% versus 50% in November.