Republicans take the day with registered voters in 33921 … (or at least we think so)

We were hoping this space would be dedicated to the Boca Grande polling location’s election 2022 results. Without fail that is what we have done the friday following an election, and it used to be because the poll workers would tape a little piece of paper to the door of the Woman’s Club Room that showed all of the results, broken down by each category. Much of that time frame was before the internet was easy to access, but even afterward the little piece of paper would be there, without fail, to let people know the specific election results for that polling place.

This year was … different. According to lee.vote, “as a result of Hurricane Ian’s impact on Lee County’s election operations, Lee County did not have a traditional Election Day, but instead called it an “extended early voting period.”

period.”

That is why, if you go to that website, under Precinct 122 (Boca Grande) you will see there were no votes cast at the polling place the day of the election. 

That being said, if you were in the line at the Crowninshield Community House where everyone was set to vote on Election Day, you probably know that isn’t true. 

None of this adds up when you look at the traditional information available after an election. You can normally find out how many voted for each candidate by precinct, or by party, or whether they voted in person on the day of the election, by mail or by early voting.

This year is different, and while it makes sense that Hurricane Ian might have caused a lot of issues, some things aren’t adding up.

When asked why there was no information for Precinct 122 except for numbers of mail in ballots and early voters, Lee County Communications Specialist for the Supervisor of Elections Gabby Aguirre said, “The model we used for this Election Day didn’t work for your circumstance.”

So, did your votes count? According to Gabby, they did. But she had to eat lunch and couldn’t entertain our phone call at the time. 

Maybe next week we’ll have something more.

UPDATE: Thursday afternoon we received an email from Aguirre who said, “Unfortunately, the specific numbers you asked for will not be made available until Monday (at the earliest). We have to pull those numbers from the machines that checked in voters at the Boca Grande voting site. However, IT was able to give me the following numbers:

• 749 voters from precinct 122 (Boca Grande precinct) voted in the general election. This is a combination of in-person and by mail.

• 379 voters voted in person. This does not mean that they all voted on Election Day. There is a possibility they could have Early Voted at any of the other voting sites too.”