APOPKA, Fla. — The citizens of Apopka have decided they are ready for a change in leadership, with Bryan Nelson out as mayor. But since no candidate crossed the 50% plus one vote threshold, the other two candidates — Christine Moore and Nick Nesta — will go head-to-head in a runoff in April.
With the ballots counted Tuesday night, Nesta came out with the most votes, just more than 3,365 in total, or 41% of the votes. He spent the night celebrating the results with his supporters.
Moore also struck a celebratory tone at her Apopka home as she finished with just over 2,500 votes, or a total of 31% of the vote.
Both candidates thanked the more than 20% of voters who did turn out, and hope to see even more people cast ballots next month.
“I just want to thank all the voters for coming out, what an incredible turnout, we love what is happening, we love this city, we are excited to see what really comes with new, proper change and we just need voters to come out April 14, we look forward to that support yet again,” said Nesta.
“We are just so excited because we came in as the outsider candidate from the county commission with a really strong message about controlling growth and rebuilding our downtown and fixing the infrastructure and we were against two sitting commissioners who have run all these races in the city all the time to be in a runoff is something we are so excited to declare today,” Moore said.
There is still a pending lawsuit against Moore filed by Nelson, who is challenging her residency and whether she qualifies to run for mayor.
But a trial date in that suit is not until next summer.
All eyes are on April 14 for the runoff.