I vote in precinct 32 at the Miami Beach Library on 22nd Street. Arriving just short of 9 a.m., there were two workers at the door who greeted me. Five or six more election day workers were inside the precinct. I counted about a dozen unused booths. I was the sole voter when I arrived. About 10 minutes later when leaving, I was still the only voter inside or outside the precinct.

The apathy we witnessed in today’s elections is a sad state of affairs when one lives in a democracy that touts the vote as its main tool. And I understand some elections may seem less important than others. But at 10:30 p.m. the Florida Elections Department was reporting a turnout rate just north of 17% with almost 99% of all precincts statewide having been counted. Miami-Dade was even worse with approximately 14% of voters visiting the polls with 97% reporting.

So as expected, it will be Rick Scott and Charlie Crist to determine Florida’s next governor. Both won their respective primaries going away.

In the District 26 congressional race, Carlos Curbelo earned the right to meet incumbent democrat Joe Garcia in November in a race that is being discussed nationally and is being called a toss-up at this point. Curberlo, a former Miami-Dade school board member, garnered 47% of the district republican votes compared to runner-up Ed MacDougall who received 25%. David Rivera did poorly coming in fourth, out of five candidates, with 7.52%.

A hard fought, dirty and important race with little participation from the voters in Miami Dade was the down to the wire slugfest that saw newcomer Daniella Levine Cava upset incumbent county commissioner Lynda Bell. At 11 p.m., Levine Cava, who had been leading from the beginning of the night, had 8,759 votes to Bell’s 8,097. With more than 80% of precincts reporting and such a light turnout, politicians began arriving at the Levine Cava victory party – a sure sign of victory.

But at the end of the day, the biggest winner on this Election Day was voter apathy – something we should not be proud of.