Woolbright, Massaro and Conklin win School Board races, Palm Coast mayoral race heads to runoff

County Commission District 3 incumbent David Sullivan will retain his seat, while District 5 incumbent Donald O'Brien won the Republican primary and will proceed to the November election.


Jill Woolbright, Colleen Conklin and Cheryl Massaro were leading in their School Board races as of 7:20 p.m., with some votes still being counted.
Jill Woolbright, Colleen Conklin and Cheryl Massaro were leading in their School Board races as of 7:20 p.m., with some votes still being counted.
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Last updated: 9:20 p.m.

With all precincts reporting the evening of Aug. 18, School Board candidates Jill Woolbright, Colleen Conklin and Cheryl Massaro won their School Board races, incumbent District 5 County Commissioner Donald O'Brien won the Republican primary, and District 3 County Commissioner David Sullivan beat challenger Kim Carney to win the race. The Palm Coast mayoral race will head to a runoff.

Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland led her challengers with 31.78% of the vote in the five-way race, trailed by Alan Lowe, who had 26.50%.

They will face each other again in November: In races with more than two candidates, a candidate will win if they garner more than 50% of the vote (50% plus one vote). Otherwise, the top two vote-winners will proceed to the general election.

In the District 1 Palm Coast City Council race, Ed Danko received 44.72% of the vote, while local pastor Sims Jones garnered 38.6% and Lou Salvagio held 16.69%. Danko and Jones will head to the general election.

In District 3, Palm Coast City Council incumbent Nick Klufas held 40.56% of the vote to Cornelia Manfre's 33.27% and Zack Shapiro's 26.17%, so Klufas and Manfre will proceed to the general election.

School Board incumbent Colleen Conklin, a professor and executive director at the Gaetz Aerospace Institute at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, won her race against challengers Paul Mucciolo and Carol Bacha with 52.06% of the vote.

Mucciolo, the director of the emergency department at AdventHealth Palm Coast, received 34.77% of the vote, and Carol "Mother Elizabeth" Bacha, a nun, received 13.16%.

In the District 5 School Board race, Cheryl Massaro, the director of the Flagler County Youth Center, unseated incumbent Maria Barbosa 56.05% to 43.95%.

The District 1 School Board race will replace board member Andy Dance, who is stepping down in order to run as a Republican for the District 1 County Commission seat. (Because there are no other Republicans in that race, Dance will not appear on the ballot until November). Jill Woolbright, a retired school teacher, beat attorney Vincent Lyon 59.34% to 40.66%. 

In the County Commission races, District 5 incumbent Donald O'Brien beat challenger Bob Jones 68.02% to 31.98% in the Republican primary. He will face two no-party-affiliation candidates in November.

Incumbent Republican David Sullivan won a narrower victory over Republican challenger Kim Carney in the District 3 race, beating her 51.01% to 48.99% in the closest major race of the night. Because there are no non-Republican candidates running for District 3, Sullivan has won the seat.  

The Aug. 18 election saw a turnout of 30.44%, and — as expected due to COVID-19 — unprecedented use of mail-in ballots, which were by far the largest share of ballots cast. 

In Flagler County, 60.85% of ballots cast were mail-in ballots, while 20.51% of ballots were cast during early voting and the remaining 18.64% were cast on Election Day. Of the total ballots cast, 47.72% were Republican, 39.88% were Democratic Party ballots and 11.87% were no-party-affiliation. 

 

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