Polls Close at 7 Tonight: Pasco Votes on Three School Board Seats and a Commission Primary

Polls across Pasco County opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday for the Aug. 18 primary and close at 7 p.m., with three School Board seats and the District 4 County Commission race on ballots that will shape how the county handles school funding and the pace of growth. Voters who are in line at 7 p.m. get to vote. Anyone who is not will not.

Supervisor of Elections Brian E. Corley's office confirmed the hours ahead of Election Day and asked voters to know their polling location before they leave the house. That is not boilerplate this cycle: four precincts have been assigned new buildings, and the county issued a formal polling-place change notice before the primary.

Four precincts moved

If you vote in Dade City, Hudson or Port Richey, look again at your voter information card. The changes apply going forward, not just today.

Precinct	New polling place
1	First United Methodist Church, 37628 Church Ave., Dade City
26	Sea Pines Civic Association, 7817 Gulf Way, Hudson
46	Portuguese American Cultural Association, 11205 Areca Dr., Port Richey
114	Discover Fellowship Church, 12561 Smith Rd., Dade City

The elections office keeps a lookup tool at PascoVotes.gov/Precincts/Precinct-Finder. Bring photo and signature identification. Without it you can still vote, but it will be a provisional ballot.

What's on your ballot depends on your party

Florida runs a closed primary. Partisan races only show up on the ballot of voters registered with that party, and party changes had to be filed by the July 20 book-closing date. You cannot switch at the polls.

School Board races are nonpartisan, so they appear on every ballot regardless of registration. That includes the ballots of voters registered with no party affiliation, who have very little else to mark today.

The District 4 County Commission primary is the exception that catches people out. Because a write-in candidate qualified in the race, the contest is closed to Republican voters only. It pits incumbent Lisa Yeager against challenger Jonathan Deckard.

Eleven candidates, three School Board seats

Two of the three seats are open, with incumbents Al Hernandez in District 1 and Cynthia Armstrong in District 3 both stepping away. Nine candidates are running for those two seats.

District 1, which takes in parts of Wesley Chapel and Land O' Lakes, has four names on the ballot: Gino Collura, Kimberly D. Coward, Christopher A. King and Brian Perras. The field ranges from a business consultant and state college trustee to a substitute teacher, a former school counselor and a retired Marine who runs a nonprofit.

District 3 has five: Matt Geiger, Sean Michael O'Flannery, Kirk Phillips, Erin Stroupe and Mollyana Ward. Armstrong is leaving after 16 years on the board.

District 5 is the only race with an incumbent defending a seat, with Megan Harding facing Michelle Mandarin.

Campaigning in the school board races has run heavily on classroom technology and cell phone use, teacher pay, career and technical training, and how a district that keeps absorbing new subdivisions manages that growth. Some candidates have drawn money from state-level political committees. Others have funded themselves.

Tonight may not settle the School Board seats

A nonpartisan School Board candidate has to clear 50 percent to win outright in the primary. In the crowded District 1 and District 3 fields, that is a real hurdle. If nobody gets there, the top two finishers move on to the Nov. 3 general election and spend another 11 weeks asking for votes.

Early voting closed Saturday, Aug. 15, after running at 12 sites around the county, so today is the last chance to cast a ballot in person. Voters who have moved and never updated their address should allow extra time at the polls to fix the record before voting.

Unofficial results post to PascoVotes.gov after the last precinct reports, starting with early and mail ballots and filling in through the evening. Turnout numbers for the primary will follow from the elections office.

For more coverage of local races and county decisions, see our government and politics stories and our education reporting. You can find us anytime at pascocommunity.com and on Facebook.

Voted today? Tell us how it went at your precinct and what mattered to you on the ballot in our Community Forum.