Duval Certifies Nov. 3 Results Monday: 361,032 Ballots, 55.1% Turnout, and Qualifying Opens Jan. 11 for the March 9, 2027 City Election

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Duval County's canvassing board faces a noon Monday deadline to turn its Nov. 3 results into official returns, closing the books on a general election in which 361,032 of the county's 655,219 registered voters cast ballots. That is a 55.1% turnout, according to the Supervisor of Elections' election night reporting page, which was last updated at 11:48 a.m. Nov. 7 with all 159 precincts counted. The same office is already pointing candidates toward the next contest, a city election with a first round on March 9, 2027, and a qualifying week that opens Jan. 11.

The Nov. 7 update was the county's first set of unofficial returns, the figures Florida law required every county to file with the state by noon that day. The Supervisor of Elections' page says those totals include cured vote-by-mail ballots and provisional ballots, and partially include overseas ballots that can arrive for up to 10 days after the election. Under the schedule posted by the Florida Division of Elections, official county returns are due by noon on Monday, Nov. 16, and the state Elections Canvassing Commission meets at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Tallahassee to certify the statewide results.

How Duval voted, by method

Early voting carried the day in Duval. In the governor's race, the two major-party tickets drew 191,937 votes at early voting sites, 121,329 on Election Day and 39,904 by mail, according to the county's results page. Republican Byron Donalds led on Election Day with 65,847 votes to Democrat David Jolly's 55,482, but Jolly outpolled him at early voting sites, 115,208 to 76,729, and by mail, 25,449 to 14,455.

The result was a county that leaned Democratic while the state went the other way. Jolly took 54.70% of the Duval vote to Donalds' 43.79%, and Democrat Angie Nixon won the county's U.S. Senate vote with 55.01% to Ashley Moody's 44.04%. Statewide, the Division of Elections' first unofficial returns showed Donalds winning the governorship with 4,135,701 votes, 50.01%, to Jolly's 4,029,461, or 48.72%. The Palm Beach Post reported Nov. 4 that statewide turnout was 60.8%.

The closest races

The tightest margins were local. In Atlantic Beach, Commission Seat 4 candidate Lisa Herrold had 3,160 votes to Jennifer Lagner's 3,158 in the Nov. 7 update, a two-vote gap that Jax Times has covered separately along with Florida's recount rules. On the state ballot, Republican Terrance Freeman led Democrat Benjamin Sandlin 51.72% to 48.28% in House District 12, and Republican Jessica Baker held 50.69% to Democrat Jacob Guerrero's 49.31% in House District 17.

House District 15 looked like a cliffhanger in Duval alone, but it was not. In the Duval precincts, no-party candidate Chadd Charland had 19,864 votes to Republican Rep. Dean Black's 19,709. The district also includes Nassau County, and the Division of Elections' district-wide total gave Black 54,682 votes, 61.64%, to Charland's 33,953, or 38.27%, with 79 write-in votes for Lloyd Caulker. The state's results page showed no recount flag on the race.

Three Duval County School Board seats were decided by margins of 7 points or less, as Jacksonville Today reported Nov. 3. Donovan Bradley won District 2 with 53.29%, Rhodesia "Rho" Butler won District 4 with 50.64% and Lindsey Denmark won District 6 with 53.09%, according to the county results page. Melina Buncome won the County Court Group 13 seat with 52.38% of the vote in the same update.

What Monday's certification does

The official returns will fold in overseas ballots that arrived by the 10-day deadline and final provisional ballot decisions. The Division of Elections timeline notes that a machine recount is triggered when a margin is one-half of 1% or less, with second unofficial returns due at 3 p.m. Nov. 12 if one is ordered. A manual recount of overvotes and undervotes follows when a margin is one-quarter of 1% or less, and those results feed into the Nov. 16 official returns.

One set of Duval races will not be finished Monday at all. News4Jax reported that votes in three Beach Community Development District seats were not tabulated because of a court order over changed district boundaries. The Supervisor of Elections' office told the station that special elections for those seats will be held in the spring alongside the city elections.

The 2027 city election calendar

The next ballot is already taking shape. According to the Supervisor of Elections' 2027 dates-to-remember sheet, Jacksonville's first election is March 9, 2027, with the general election on May 18, 2027. Candidate qualifying runs from noon Monday, Jan. 11, to noon Friday, Jan. 15, 2027, and the office says it will begin accepting qualifying documents and fees on Dec. 28, 2026.

The mayor's race is already crowded. Jacksonville Today reported Oct. 13 that Democratic Mayor Donna Deegan faces a 13-candidate field that includes Republican state Rep. Wyman Duggan. The Jacksonville Daily Record reported that Deegan filed her re-election paperwork April 16, and Action News Jax listed six other filers at that time: Ronald Armstrong Jr., Harry Daniel Long, Eric Darian Dupree, Brandon R. Enamorado, Brian Hicks and Glenvin Owen.

All 19 City Council seats are on the ballot, too. Jacksonville Today reported that Basketball Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore, 77, filed as a Democrat for the at-large Group 3 seat held by Council President Nick Howland, a Republican, and that District 7 council member Jimmy Peluso is running for at-large Group 4, which term-limited Republican Matt Carlucci is leaving. Republican Ron Salem is also term-limited in at-large Group 2, and Republicans hold 13 of the 19 seats. Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland filed April 10 for re-election to his own office, the Daily Record reported.

Voters who want a say in March have their own deadline. Florida law closes voter registration 29 days before an election, which for the March 9 first election falls on Monday, Feb. 8, 2027. Residents can check their registration status and address at duvalelections.gov before then. The Supervisor of Elections calls the January window a unitary qualifying period, and all candidates for an office appear together on the March ballot sent to every Duval voter.