- August 7, 2026
Voter turnout for primary elections are historically lower that general elections. But is month's primary is important, Flagler County Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart said, because at least three, and as many as six local races, will be decided on Aug. 18.
Early voting in the county begins on Saturday, Aug. 8, and ends Saturday, Aug. 15 at five sites.
Registered Republicans and Democrats will be able to vote in the primary to decide their party’s candidates for several federal and state offices including Florida governor, U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative. Republican voters can also vote for party candidates in two county commission races.
All Flagler County voters will be able to vote in nonpartisan elections. Three of those races have two candidates vying for office. So those races will be decided on Aug. 18 — School Board District 1 between Cathy Moon and Jill Woolbright; School Board District 2 between incumbent Will Furry and Rob Wood; and Seventh Circuit Judge, Group 26, between Carleen Leffler and Jeanne Stratis.
A third School Board race — District 4 with Trevor Tucker, Ron Long and incumbent Christy Chong vying for the seat — could also be decided in the primary if one of the candidates receives more than 50% of the vote. If none of them receive the majority of the vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the Nov. 3 General Election.
Palm Coast voters have two City Council races on their ballots, both with more than two candidates. Antonio "Tony" Amaral Jr., Jeani Duarte and Jimmy Hengy are running for the District 2 seat. Dylana “Dee” Galery, John Kvederis, Ramon Marrero and Darlene Shelley are running in District 4.
Ray Stevens has won the Palm Coast District 3 seat by virtue of being the only candidate running.
The average voter turnout in Florida for primary elections is less than 30%. Flagler County’s average is slightly higher but still under 30%, Lenhart said. In 2024, the county’s turnout was a little over 29% for the primary but over 83% (80,718 of 96,751 registered voters) for the General Election, which included the presidential election.
“Hopefully, this year we have a higher turnout based on the candidates on the ballot, our local offices, which are really important,” Lenhart said. “There are three races in this primary election that will be decided in August. So, if you skip the primary election, you're skipping your ability to vote in those races in particular. And then there are three races that could be decided.”
Florida has a closed primary, so the Republican and Democratic ballots are different. All registered voters should have received a sample ballot in the mail, Lenhart said. A sample ballot can also be found at flaglerelections.gov.
The Democratic ballot in Flagler County has primary races for U.S. Senator; U.S. House, District 6; Florida governor; state chief financial officer; and state agriculture commissioner. The Republican ballot has all of those contests plus two county commission races, which include only Republican candidates.
Greg Feldman and Palm Coast City Council member Theresa Pontieri are on the Republican ballot in District 2. Anna Jones, Drew Moss and incumbent Leann Pennington are on the ballot in District 4.
An independent candidate, Raymond Royer, will be on the November ballot in District 1 against the winner of the primary. Pontieri and Feldman have outspent their independent opponent by large amounts with Pontieri receiving $29,670 in contributions and Feldman receving $20,670 compared to $5,060 by Royer.
Similarly, in District 4, the three candidates are on the Republican primary ballot only because Denise Calderon qualified as a write-in candidate, which means she won’t be on the November ballot, but, by Florida statute, space to write in the candidate’s name will be provided.
Early voting and voting by mail have gained in popularity while Election Day voting in the county has decreased over the past 10 years, Lenhart said.
“I think there's a shift and a trend towards early voting and voting by mail, and that you can see that statewide and in our county,” she said. “Definitely, early voting is our highest turnout in a General Election (42,731 of the 80,718 county voters in 2024 voted early). But you really can’t compare two elections. Even though you try to use historical data to predict turnout, it just seems that every election is different, and the turnout will reflect that.”
The Elections Office mailed out almost 15,000 vote-by-mail ballots, Lenhart said. As of Aug. 7, 5,797 mail-in ballots have been returned. Mail-in ballots must be received by 7 p.m. Aug. 18. In addition to mail, they can be returned to the Elections Office or to a dropbox at a voting site during polling hours. The dropboxes are monitored by Elections Office employees, Lenhart said.
The five early voting sites are the Flagler County Public Library Palm Coast branch, the Palm Coast Community Center, the Flagler County Elections Office, the Southern Recreation Center and the Wickline Senior Center in Flagler Beach.
“The library tends to be the most popular, because I think that a lot of people have always voted there, although it is probably the smallest space now, as far as square footage, so wait times there are a bit higher, just because we can't add any any more booths.” Lenhart said.
The Elections Office's renovation has recently been completed, with the voting area there doubling in size. The Flagler Beach site was moved to the Wickline Senior Center, which is closer to the downtown area.
If you wait to vote on primary day, Aug. 18, you will ve voting in one of 21 neighborhood precincts in the county. Your Election Day precinct is on your voter information care. You can also check the precinct finder on the Elections Office website: flaglerelections.gov/My-Voter-Info/Find-Your-Precinct.
