- April 25, 2024
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Newly elected Palm Coast City Council members Cathy Heighter and Theresa Carli Pontieri. Photos by Danny Broadhurst
City Council candidate Theresa Carli Pontieri waves to traffic on Palm Coast Parkway. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Palm Coast City Council Candidate Cathy Heighter was at the Flagler County Public Library branch on Palm Coast Parkway to connect with voters on Election Day. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Clinton, Leann Pennington and Clinton celebrate Pennington's win on election evening at the Elks Lodge in Palm Coast. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Council candidate Theresa Carli Pontieri and family celebrate her win at the Elks Lodge in Palm Coast. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
The Pennington family and supporters celebrate Leann Pennington's win. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
School Board candidate Will Furry, wife Jamie and family and supporters celebrate the win at Furry's home in Palm Coast. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
The inclement weather did not seem to sway potential voters. Most venues hosting polling booths reported excellent turnout. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Cinnamon Beach resident Tom Hammang leaves a polling station with his daughter Aica. Hammang's number one priority or concern this election? Preserving democracy, he said. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Candidate Alan Lowe at the Flagler County Public Library. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Edmund and Mary Bennett said they had one main concern as they voted on Election Day: Election integrity. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
City Council Candidate Fernando Melendez and supporters at the Flagler County Public Library branch on Palm Coast Parkway. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Ocean Hammock residents Dennis and June Gleason exit after casting their votes. When asked what the primary concern was this election, June responded jokingly, "It's the economy, stupid." Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Members of the Palm Coast Professional Firefighters Union L4807 supporting Council Candidate Theresa Carli Pontieri. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Sarah and Fernando Melendez and supporters at the Green Lion Café awaiting the results on election evening. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
Sally Hirst and democratic supporters convene at the Palm Coast Community Center to support School Board candidate Courtney VandeBunte. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
School Board candidate Courtney VandeBunte and her supporters attend a watch party on election night. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
School board candidate Will Furry, wife Jamie and sons celebrate the win at home in Palm Coast. Photo by Danny Broadhurst
by: Jonathan Simmons, Brent Woronoff and Sierra Williams
Last updated: 10:00 p.m. Nov. 8.
Leann Pennington won the District 4 Flagler County Commission race, Will Furry won the District 2 School Board race and Theresa Carli Pontieri and Cathy Heighter won the two open Palm Coast City Council seats on Nov. 8.
“I’m ready to get to work, I really am," Pontieri told the Observer. “Really, it's going to be kind of understanding where we're at right now, what’s our immediate agenda. And then what our perceivable future agenda is going to be, so that we can start really focusing on items to achieve all those things.”
Speaking of her opponent, Alan Lowe, Pontieri added: “I wish him the best in his future endeavors, whatever that may be. I just respect the fact that he stepped into the ring to do this and put himself out there.”
Heighter said she looks forward to hearing from constituents.
“I want my constituents to feel free to reach out to me and voice their opinions, and I want to be that voice for all of my constituents and residents and citizens of Palm Coast," she said.
"It was a tough race for me, because it was the first time that I have taken on this type of endeavor," Heighter said. "However, I do believe in myself, and I feel very strongly about what I believe in and what I stand for.”
Asked to what factors he attributed his victory in the School Board race, Furry said he'd stayed true to his platform.
"I stood with the parents and their rights," he said. "And I think that they identified that they wanted conservative values on the School Board."
Furry said that increasing the school district's reading scores will be his top priority once he's in office.
"What I think we can do is pass policy and guide the superintendent to help with the early learning years of education, to help identify problems with reading early so we can help solve them, rather than wait till later and have to catch kids up," Furry said.
He added, "I’m truly humbled and honored by the overwhelming response from the electorate. And I promise to work to advance policy for our School Board and guide the superintendent so that we can make Flagler Schools the envy of the state, if not the nation."
Pennington said that her first priority on the County Commission would be giving District 4 good representation.
"I want to be present out there within the community, weekly, taking back their issues to our county staff and really working through some different, unique issues that the rest of the county doesn't face," she said.
Asked how she felt about her win, Pennington said, “A year of my life it took to get here, and it was a roller coaster, but it feels really good.”
As of 9:20 p.m. on Election Night, all precincts were reporting and all early voting ballots had been counted, but some mail ballots had not yet been tallied. A total of 58,808 are cast in the election, according to the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections Office website. Turnout was 61.7%.
Pennington, a Republican, won her race with 73.42% of the vote to NPA competitor Jane Gentile-Youd's 26.58%.
Pontieri had 67.77% of the vote to Alan Lowe's 32.23% in the nonpartisan District 2 Palm Coast City Council race.
In the District 4 City Council race, Heighter won with 54.42% of the vote to Fernando Melendez's 45.58%.
Furry beat Courtney VandeBunte 58.38% to 41.62% in the nonpartisan District 2 Flagler County School Board race.
Voters strongly backed the renewal of the county's half-cent sales tax to support Flagler Schools — 69.29% in favor to 30.71% against.
Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart said the election ran smoothly. Although she'd hoped for higher turnout overall, Election Day turnout itself was the highest the county had had in years.
"Everything went really well," she said on Flagler Broadcasting's "Free For All Friday" radio program.
Republicans swept statewide races: Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio won reelection, Ashley Moody was reelected as attorney general, Jimmy Patronis was reelected chief financial officer and Wilton Simpson was elected commissioner of agriculture.
Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, was reelected as state representative for District 19. He had 64.03% to Democratic challenger Adam Morley's 35.97% on election night.
Republican Michael Waltz was reelected to the District 6 U.S. House seat, beating Libertarian Party of Florida challenger Joe Hannoush.
None of the three state constitutional amendments received the 60% needed to pass.
To view local election results on the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections Office website, go to https://enr.electionsfl.org/FLA/3314/Summary.
To view statewide results, go to https://floridaelectionwatch.gov.
