Carrie Hughes is the projected winner of the Wakulla County District 4 County Commission seat.
Hughes says that she wants to be a voice for the people of Wakulla.
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Carrie Hughes is projected winner of Wakulla County's District 4 commission seat"I feel great. I'm excited for what's to come," Hughes said.
Unofficially, Hughes won by roughly 6,500 votes over her fellow candidates about 70% of the vote in Wakulla. All the precincts reported in around 8:15 p.m.
"First and foremost, I want to represent all the people and make sure that they feel heard. And other than that, I want to be responsible and transparent when it comes to my position with the county," Hughes said.
To help bring that transparency, she plans to be open about why she's voting on things and getting information to the public. She also plans to have an open line of communication.
"I hope to do some quarterly-type town hall meetings to try to make sure that there's good communication between me and the community," Hughes said.
She says she's watched Wakulla County grow and got frustrated over seeing all the comprehensive plan amendment changes it's what led her to run, she told Neighborhood Reporter Serena Davanzo in a pre-election interview.
"I've watched for years all the comp plan amendments, and our comp plan is supposed to be a guide for the community and how we grow. And it's almost like almost every single comp plan gets approved without a lot of forethought for the future,"
Hughes is thankful to the voters and her team.
Hughes spent 11 years serving the state, then followed with 19 years with the City of Tallahassee's Growth Management Department.
The unofficial voter turnout in Wakulla was 15,214 just shy of 59%. That consists of just under 2,000 mail-in ballots, about 6,500 early voters, and about 6,700 day-of voters. This year's general election had almost the same number of early voters as day-of voters.
Some of the items voters in Wakulla were looking at were the District 4 County Commission seat, the school tax referendum, and Amendment 3. The school tax referendum unofficially passed.
Joe Morgan, the supervisor of elections, said that while voting went smoothly, a turnout of less than 60% isn't that great.
"For the most part of it, today went smooth. The irony behind this is we were literally talking about it all day. It was almost too quiet, right? And then of course the rain hit, and you know for the most part of it people were just trying to scramble to get somewhere where they were dry, which I don't blame them. I would have too," Morgan said.
Out of Wakulla's almost 26,000 eligible voters, roughly only 15,214 of them voted this midterm.
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