Incumbents fare well in Volusia County

Preliminary results show 74 percent turnout for Volusia

By Barb Shepherd
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Nov 4, 2008 - 11:30:34pm

While many said "no incumbent is safe" in an election year that brought droves of new voters to the polls courtesy of the Barack Obama campaign, incumbents fared well today in Volusia County.

With 99 percent of the vote counted at 10:51 p.m., it appeared Sheriff Ben Johnson, Elections Supervisor Ann McFall, U.S. Rep. John Mica, Property Appraiser Morgan Gilreath and state Rep. Pat Patterson — all incumbents — all were safe.

Volusia County was not showing the high turnouts being reported by some other Central Florida counties. With 99 percent of the precincts in, including about 52,000 absentee ballots, it appeared the Volusia County turnout was about 74 percent.

Of the county's approximately 327,000 registered voters, 243,551 cast ballots in the presidential race. The totals published tonight do not include 527 provisional ballots, which must be reviewed by the Canvassing Board.

Municipal races bucked the trend, and incumbents did not fare so well. It appeared DeBary Mayor George Coleman would be ousted by challenger Bob Garcia, and both incumbents in the Lake Helen City Commission races appeared to be in danger.

Lake Helen's races were too close to call at 11 p.m. With most of the votes counted, challenger Vernon Burton had a five-vote lead over incumbent Alan "Cookie" Cook. Challenger Cameron Lane had a three-vote lead over incumbent Louis T. Benton III.

Also, an incumbent fell in Congressional District 24, as Democratic challenger Suzanne Kosmas unseated incumbent Tom Feeney, with 61.49 percent of the vote to Feeney's 36.58 percent.

Most of Volusia County's incumbents won by comfortable margins in the preliminary vote tally:

• Sheriff Ben Johnson, 73.44 percent.

• Elections Supervisor Ann McFall, 72.44 percent

• Property Appraiser Morgan Gilreath, 58.49 percent

• State Rep. Patterson, Dist. 26, 57.31 percent

• U.S. Rep. John Mica, Dist. 7, 55.97 percent in Volusia County

Property Appraiser Gilreath, although he appeared to have a comfortable margin over challenger Ruth Zimmerman, declined to claim victory. He expected a higher turnout, and believes there could be thousands more votes to count.

"I won't acknowledge that I won the election, but it looks very promising," Gilreath said. "Serving the citizens of Volusia County is the greatest honor I've ever had."

— info@beacononlinenews.com

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