Residents across the Treasure Coast cast their ballots Nov. 4 for local offices, and the unofficial results are in.
Fort Pierce held a special election to fill the District 2 City Commission seat left vacant after former Commissioner James Taylor resigned in July following his arrest on child exploitation charges.
Donna Benton, Chris Dzadovsky and Jaimebeth Galinis were among the candidates vying for the seat. None received more than 50% of the vote, triggering a runoff election in January.
According to the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections, Dzadovsky led with 1,034 votes, or about 40% of the total. Galinis received 796 votes, roughly 31%, and Benton earned 760 votes, about 29%. Of 13,106 eligible voters, 2,592 ballots were cast — a turnout of roughly 20%.
In Indian River County, voters in Fellsmere and Vero Beach also went to the polls to elect city council members.
Fellsmere voters chose two among Ben Baker, Cesar Gomez and Inocensia Hernandez. Unofficial results show Baker leading with 108 votes, or 43%, followed by Hernandez with 84 votes, or 34%, and Gomez with 55 votes, or 22%. Turnout was about 15%, with 1,837 ballots cast out of 11,858 eligible voters.
In Vero Beach, voters also chose two candidates. Taylor J. Dingle received 1,231 votes, or 44%, followed by John E. Cotugno with 1,202 votes, or 43%, and Brian Heady with 367 votes, or 13%.
The final local election took place in the town of Ocean Breeze in Martin County, where voters selected three of six candidates to serve on the Town Council.
Candidates included Gail Balogna, Kevin Docherty, Pamela Hurlock, Matthew Kick, Margaret Pugsley and Gregg Scharnagl. A seventh candidate, Steven Cohen, appeared on the ballot but had withdrawn before Election Day.
According to the Martin County Supervisor of Elections, results were as follows: Docherty with 201 votes, Balogna with 200, Pugsley with 193, Hurlock with 136, Scharnagl with 133, Kick with 130 and Cohen with one vote.
Nov. 4 marked Election Day nationwide, with voters turning out to elect city, county and state representatives.