Fernandina Beach council seat goes to recount; Bean defeated; Antun elected mayor

Nassau County voters this week elected political newcomer Joyce Tuten for a City Commission seat over current Mayor Bradley Bean. Bean is the son of Congressman Aaron Bean, a Republican who was just reelected in House District 4 with support from 76.30% of Nassau County voters.

Tuten describes herself as a retired science teacher from Maryland who now volunteers for environmental causes in Florida, according to her website, Climate Change Talk . Her campaign slogan was "Better, not Bigger."

Tuten defeated Bean by about 54% to 46%, a difference of 803 votes.

At the same time, City Commissioner James Antun was elected mayor, with 67.51% of the vote over Darron Ayscue. In Fernandina Beach, mayoral candidates must be current council members.

Meanwhile, the Nassau County Canvassing Board is sorting ballots in preparation to recount the Fernandina Beach City Commission Seat 2 race.

Challenger Genece Minshew beat incumbent City Commissioner/Vice Mayor David Sturges by just 19 votes out of more than 9,000 votes cast. Florida mandates a recount of all votes if the margin of victory is 0.5% or lower.

Nassau County Supervisor of Elections Janet Adkins says the recount in the Minshew-Sturges race will officially begin on Tuesday, Nov. 12. Adkins says extracting and re-tabulating about 10,000 city ballots out of roughly 66,000 countywide will take days.

"It is a very lengthy and detail-oriented process that my team will be going through on Friday, Tuesday and possibly Wednesday."

Adkins invites the public and candidates to view any part of the recount.

"All of our meetings are open to the public," she says. "We have complete transparency with elections. That's important so that people have trust in elections."

The recount is happening at the Public Services Building, 96135 Nassau Place.