When Four Times the Votes Doesn’t Mean Four Times the Support
During a recent Hillsborough County Commission meeting, Commissioner Josh Wostal had an interesting answer for Tampa officials who complained that the county gives the city short shrift.
Wostal highlighted his vote count, saying he got four times more votes than Tampa’s at-large City Council members and three times more than the city’s mayor.
That sounds impressive. It gets considerably less impressive once someone introduces arithmetic.
Wostal won his countywide District 7 seat in 2022 with 246,947 votes. He received 52.38% of the votes cast. Now consider Tampa’s three at-large council members. In the 2023 runoff that elected them, Alan Clendenin received 16,244 votes, Guido Maniscalco 15,764, and Lynn Hurtak 15,447. Only 25,913 Tampa voters participated in that election. 
Measure each candidate against everyone who participated in their election and the bragging rights get awkward.
Wostal received votes equal to about 50.8% of countywide voters. Clendenin received 62.7% of Tampa voters who participated. Maniscalco received 60.8%. Hurtak received 59.6%.
Apparently, holding elections with different electorates and wildly different turnout makes raw vote totals different. Who knew?
There is another small detail. District 7 is a countywide seat. Tampa residents also vote for their countywide commissioners. So, some of the 246,947 votes Wostal mentions as proof of his stronger support actually came from Tampa voters.
Wostal did get a lot more votes, but he ran in a countywide November election where many more people voted.
That proves Hillsborough County is larger than Tampa.
I think most of us already knew that. Obviously, math isn’t one of Josh’s strong suits.
- Sources
Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, 2022 General Election Official Results - Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, 2023 City of Tampa Municipal Runoff Election Official Results
- Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, 2023 City of Tampa Municipal Runoff Election Turnout Report
- Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, Hillsborough County Commission District Information / District 7 Countywide Seat
- Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, Voting History Codes / City Codes
