BREAKING: Beach wins property appraiser race

Posted on November 3, 2020

Republican Shawna Beach pulled in nearly 63% of the vote to defeat Abbey Lundy Tharpe (37.11%) for the Taylor County Property Appraiser’s seat, according to preliminary election results released Tuesday night.

Beach, a certified Florida evaluator running as a Republican, received 6,217 votes, while Tharpe, director of the Taylor County 4-H program running with no party affiliation (NPA), received 3,669 votes in the only local race on the general election ballot.

Beach held a 65.86% to 34.14% edge in early voting, pulling in 2,766 votes to almost double Tharpe’s 1,434.

Beach’s edge was not as large in vote by mail ballots, as she edged Tharpe 1,706 (51%) to 1,285 (49%). 

At the polls on election day, Tharpe, a fourth-generation Taylor County resident with 19 years of experience working in both the public and private sector, received 950 votes (35.3%) , compared to 1,745 (64.7%) for Beach.

A total of 9,979 of the 12,777 active eligible voters cast a ballot in the race, representing a 78.1% voter turnout. 

Some 4,292 (43%) of those who cast a ballot voted early, while 3,096 (31%) voted by mail and 2,591 (26%) voters went to the polls on election day.

Beach, with over 10 years of experience in a variety of roles within the Property Appraiser’s office, will take over for current Property Appraiser Bruce A. Ratliff, who announced his decision to retire at the end of this term and endorsed Beach to succeed him.

Beach has worked for the Property Appraiser’s office for over a decade, starting out as a receptionist before moving on to become a Certified Florida Evaluator under the Department of Revenue through courses offered by the International Association of Assessing Officers.

After initially specializing in exemptions, Beach soon moved on to serve in the roles of budget manager, office manager, bookkeeper and tangible personal property appraiser, overseeing the office’s tangible personal property roll, which represents over 40% of Taylor County’s overall tax roll. 

Beach is an associate member of the Property Appraisers’ Association of Florida and Certified Florida Evaluator. Her education includes Fundamentals of Real Property Appraisal, Fundamentals of Mass Appraisal, Income Approach to Valuation and Principles and Techniques of Cadastral Mapping.

Tharpe touted her eight years of experience working for the University of Florida and Taylor County Board of County Commissioners, as well as completing 300 hours of real estate coursework and holding a certified real estate broker’s license for over a decade.

Beach advanced to the general election by pulling in 70.12% of the vote to handily defeat fellow Republican challenger Jerry Register (29.88%) in the Republican primary race for the Property Appraiser’s seat in the August primary.

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