FORT PIERCE \u2014 District 2 city voters had until 6 p.m. Saturday to cast their ballots early leading up to the Nov. 4 election for a new Fort Pierce City Commission member.<\/p>\n
Now registered voters who live in District 2 must go to their local voting precincts Nov. 4 to select among the three candidates to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of James Taylor III.<\/p>\n
Taylor stepped down in July after his arrest on multiple counts of online exploitation of an Illinois minor. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.<\/p>\n
As of Thursday, St. Lucie County election reports show just 6.38 percent of the 13,095 eligible voters in the city\u2019s District 2 have submitted ballots, either by mail or at early voting taking place at the Renaissance Business Park, 4132 Okeechobee Rd., Entrance 3.<\/p>\n
Voters can cast their ballots on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m, at their designated voting precincts.<\/p>\n
Candidates vying for the commission seat are Donna Diehl Benton, 1365 Bayshore Dr.; Chris Dzadovsky, 1002 Jamaica Ave.; and Jaimebeth Galinis, 1710 Plover Ave.<\/p>\n
If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes, the top two finishers will advance to a Jan. 13 runoff election to decide the next District 2 commissioner.<\/p>\n
Although city commission elections are non-partisan\u2013meaning candidates do not run under political party designations\u2013voter registration records indicate voters who self-identify as Democrats appear to be slightly outperforming those who say they are Republicans.<\/p>\n
The latest polling data showed 383 votes had been logged by registered Democrats; 319, Republicans and 120 who declared no party affiliation when they originally registered to vote.<\/p>\n
Election day voting will take place Tuesday, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at these polling places for Fort Pierce District 2 balloters only:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Precinct 8.1: Midway Road Church of Christ, 3040 W. Midway Road.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Precincts 10.0 and 13.1: Havert L. Fenn Center, 2000 Virginia Ave.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Precinct 12.1: Fort Pierce Masonic Lodge, 4590 Oleander Ave.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Precinct 16.1: Westside Church, formerly Chapel By The Sea, 1717 Gulfstream Ave.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Precinct 25.1: Days Inn, 3224 S. U.S. 1.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Precinct 40.1: All Generations Church, formerly Church of God, 3212 Oleander Ave.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Precinct 60.2: St. Lucie School, 2501 N. Old Dixie Highway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2014 District 2 city voters had until 6 p.m. Saturday to cast their ballots early leading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-32002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}