- November 20, 2024
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Palm Coast resident Mike Norris is Palm Coast's new mayor. Photo by Sierra Williams
Ty Miller has won the Palm Coast City Council District 1 seat against opponent Jeffery Seib. Photo by Sierra Williams
Ray Stevens won against opponent Andrew Werner in the race for the Palm Coast District 3 seat. Photo by Sierra Williams
The Flagler County Democrats at the intersection of Old Kings Road and Palm Coast Parkway were campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day. Photo by Sierra Williams
The Flagler County public library in Palm Coast on the 2024 Election Day. Photo by Sierra Williams
Flagler GOP members campaigning on Election Day. From left to right: Tracy Norris and Paula and Don Bedner. Photo by Sierra Williams
Flagler County Democrats members Charlene Stapleton, Christine Milnes and Dr. James Cauley at the Palm Coast branch of the public library. Photo by Sierra Williams
Palm Coast resident Andrew Werner was running for the City Council's District 3 seat against Ray Stevens. Photo by Sierra Williams
Palm Coast City Council District 1 candidate Jeffery Seib lost his campaign to opponent Ty Miller. Photo by Sierra Williams
Cornelia Downing Manfre lost her mayoral campaign to opponent Mike Norris. Photo by Sierra Williams
This is a developing story, and will be updated as results are finalized. Last update: 10:32 p.m., Nov. 5.
Mike Norris is Palm Coast’s new mayor in a record-setting election in Flagler County.
The 2024 general election had a record-breaking turnout of 83.37% of Flagler County’s 96,750 registered voters, according to the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections website — a total of 80,659 ballots cast. Flagler County last cracked an 80% voter turnout in the 2008 Presidential Election, and hasn't reached 83% since 1996, according to a post on the Supervisor of Elections Facebook page.
"Thank you to our voters, and the Flagler County Elections Team for this tremendous effort," the post read.
More than half of county residents voted either by mail or during the early voting period, ahead of Nov. 5. By end of day Nov. 2, the last day in the early voting period, 42,900 residents voted early and 21,043 had submitted ballots by mail.
It took the Flagler Elections office an hour to fully report all the remaining mail in ballots and count the Election Day ballots cast at each of Flagler County's 21 precincts. Votes are still being tabulated across Florida — and the nation — for the state and federal races.
In Flagler, county residents ultimately voted in support of legalizing recreational marijuana and protecting abortion rights, but just barely. Meanwhile, Palm Coast residents ousted the controversial Charter Amendment.
Below is a break down of Flagler County's results.
With all precincts reporting in, Norris has won 63.37% of 52,953 votes from Palm Coast residents. His opponent, Cornelia Downing Manfre, took home 36% of the vote. The 63%-36% split of the vote was immediate from just the early voting results and most of the mail-in ballots, and held as precinct votes were counted.
Two races were also decided for the Palm Coast City Council. For the District 1 seat, Ty Miller won 70.5% of 49,216 votes, to Jeffery Cortland Seib’s 29.5%. The results were closer for the City Council District 3 seat: Ray Stevens has preliminarily won with 58.02% of the 45,681 votes, while his opponent Andrew Werner received 41.98%.
In an interview with the Observer, Miller said he and his campaign team put in a lot of leg work over the last several months.
"It's good to see people respond and get those results that kind of validate the work that you put in," he said.
Miller, Stevens and Norris will be replacing Vice Mayor Ed Danko, Council member Nick Klufas and Mayor David Alfin in their respective seats.
"The voters, resoundingly, have said they want change," Miller said.
Several key issues face the new council members almost immediately after they are sworn in, including beginning the search for the city's new city manager.
Finding a new city manager is the first thing the council needs to take care of, Miller said.
"It's been this situation that you have this kind of hold on something that's very important for the city," he said. "We need to find somebody that's both fiscally responsible as well as understands the priorities that the city council directs."
Miller said that while that is priority number one, closely behind that is addressing the city's infrastructure issues — the number one topic that is on the mind for most Palm Coast residents, he said. The council will need to focus on providing quality services to residents and getting services back up to par for residents.
"It's going to be extremely difficult," Miller said. "We have to rise to that challenge and try to find different ways to fund it."
The new Palm Coast City Council members and mayor will be sworn in at the next Palm Coast Council business meeting on Nov. 19.
The two remaining races for the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners was all but decided in the August Primary races, but for write-in candidates. Flagler County residents voted overwhelmingly for Pam Richardson for the county District 5 seat and Kim M. Carney for the District 3 seat. Barely three percent of residents in each race voted for a write-in candidate.
Incumbent Andy Dance was reelected to his District 1 seat in the August Primary Election. He and the two newest commissioners will be sworn in at the next Flagler County Commission business meeting.
While the vote was closer for State Constitutional Amendments 3 and 4 than in the Palm Coast City Council results, Flagler County residents ultimately voted in support of legalizing marijuana and protecting abortion rights.
State Constitutional Amendments require a 60% vote to pass, according to the Florida Division of Elections' website. As of 10 p.m. on Nov. 5, with 97% of Florida's precincts reporting, only two of the constitutional amendments have enough votes to pass: Amendment No. 5, "Annual Adjustments to the Value of Certain Homestead Exemptions," and Amendment No. 2, "Right to Fish and Hunt."
Amendment No. 3 on the ballot was to legalize smoking marijuana for adults over 21. Flagler County residents voted 53.43% to 46.57% to legalize it, with 78,427 votes cast. The amendment only received 55% of supporting votes statewide, as of the 10 p.m. on Nov. 5 election results on the Florida Division of Elections' website.
For Amendment No. 4, limiting government interference with abortion, 51.61% voted in support of the measure. Some 57% of Florida voters overall voted in support of this amendment statewide, as of 10 p.m. Nov. 5, falling just short of the 60% requirement.
Closer to home, the Palm Coast Charter Amendment failed with city residents. The proposed amendment would have removed a section of the charter outlining limitations to how much the city can borrow without voter approval.
Palm Coast residents voted against the amendment, with 58% of some 52,000 residents voting against it.
Flagler County's residents overwhelmingly supported the Republican candidates for the state and federal offices.
In the presidential race, 63.6% of ballots were cast in support of former President Donald Trump. The presidential race had the highest turnout of all the ballot races in Flagler County, with a total of 80,159 residents voting in the presidential race.
For Flagler County's United States Congress representatives, 62.93% voted for Republican incumbent Rick Scott to keep his senator seat and 66.02% for Republican incumbent Congressional Rep. Michael Waltz to hold his seat for another term.
Tom Leek received 66.83% of Flagler County's votes for the District 7 State Senator seat while Sam Greco received 63.77% for his campaign for the State Representative District 19 seat.
