Few people know who to vote for in school board primaries

A majority of Escambia County voters either don’t know the candidates or are undecided on whom to vote for in the three school board primaries on August 28.

District 1 incumbent Kevin Adams leads Marjorie White, 25.4%-13%, but 61.7% have no idea who will get their vote in the primary.

District 2 School Board member Gerald Boone chose not to see a fourth term, and the primary race for his replacement is wide open with 84.3% uncertain about the race. Raymond Guillory leads with 8.6%, followed by Paul Fetsko, Superintendent Malcolm Thomas’s former Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction, with 4.6% and newcomer Kells Hetherington with 2.5%.

In District 3, name recognition appears to be the key, but 62.3% are still uncertain who will get their vote in the primary. Long-time School Board member Linda Moultrie, who resigned abruptly during her third term, leads with 19.9%. Her governor-appointed replacement, Lee Hansen is a distant second with 4.6%. Clinton Powell, Larry Williams and Walker Wilson separated by one vote, ranging from 4.1%-3.6% of the vote.  Laura Edler trails with 1.7%.

The Political Matrix sampled likely voters of the primary and general election cycles. They were called using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system and were called during the hours of 2-8 p.m. June 6-7. The phone numbers called were provided by the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections office. The Margin of Error for this study is +/- 3.9% with a confidence level of 95%.