Malcolm Thomas will be Escambia County’s last elected superintendent of schools when he finishes his term in 2020. The voters last night approved the referendum that will make the position one that will be appointed by the school board — 62,337-61,448.
The credit for the victory goes to the Pensacola Young Professionals who manned all the polling places yesterday. When the early voting and mail-in results were released minutes after the polls closed, elected had a slight advantage.
However as the election day votes were tallied, we began to see the impact of PYP’s ground game. The appointed side took control. At one point, the appointed lead by over 1,100 votes. When the northern precincts were counted, the vote narrowed to less than 600 with three precincts outstanding.
In the end, appointed won by 889 votes.