Romney declared winner

Mitt Romney has been declared the winner of the Florida Republican Primary and has won the majority vote of Sarasota County registered voters.

With 89% of the state’s precincts reporting as of 9:20 p.m. Tuesday, Romney is leading with 46% of the overall vote over challenger Newt Gingrich, who has vowed to stay in the race.

The two remaining candidates for the Republican nomination, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, are receiving a nominal number of votes, both at home and statewide.

Locally, all of Sarasota County precincts reported that Romney received 50.87% of the Sarasota County vote, or 28,281 votes. Gingrich collected 27.24% of the vote in Sarasota County, or 15,142 votes.

Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent projected a 50% voter turnout in Sarasota County and numbers reflect a 45.46% voter turnout with all 156 precincts reporting. There are 122,338 registered Republicans in Sarasota County.

“Turnout was excellent,” said Sarasota County Republican Chair Joe Gruters. “People were excited for the day to be finally be here and made their voices heard.”

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].