Correction: A version of this article listed the worng number of total Republican and Democrat votes.

Much has been made of partisanship in Sarasota County School races. The defeat of incumbent School Board member Eric Robinson by Tom Edwards seemed to both sides a victory for Democrats Tuesday.

I might suggest it’s more complicated than that; it always is. Any election with an incumbent on the ballot serves as a referendum on that candidate. Robinson, since winning election to the School Board unopposed, was untested at the ballot in the first place. But I might suggest friction with former Superintendent Todd Bowden and a bevy of bad headlines that came with it weighed down Robinson’s support. Certainly, Bowden was unpopular by the time he parted ways with the school district in disgrace, so that was a war Robinson won — righteously at that — but not one where he left unwounded.

That said, don’t read this as dismissal political parties played a role. Republicans and Democrats made it well known in Sarasota who were the registered Democrats and Republicans in both school district races on the ballot. Sarasota Democratic Party Chair JoAnna Devries has as much right to crow about election results as maybe anyone but Edwards himself. And since sitting School Board member Jane Goodwin switched parties earlier this year, this means Democrats will make up a majority of the board for another two years.

Yet, it may be premature to suggest Sarasota County has become a purple county, much less that it’s approaching a blue one anytime soon. Most obviously, while a Democrat beat Robinson, a prominent Republican campaign treasurer and former chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota, the other race on the ballot Tuesday went Republican. Karen Rose, who came within 1,000 votes of defeating Democratic School Board member Shirley Brown two years ago, defeated David Graham to win an open seat on the board, replacing Democrat Caroline Zucker.

Another important point. I assure you there are readers right now screaming at their screens about identifying School Board members by party in the first place. State law changed two decades ago to make School Board races nonpartisan, and candidates may not go around telling voters to support them because they are Democrats or Republicans (parties themselves can tell everybody that and candidates can boast about work they’ve done on behalf of the parties; Florida law is weird).

Democrats have yet to show much evidence they can get candidates elected countywide who get branded with a D on the paper ballots. The party’s involvement in the single-member district change for county commission races and subsequent objection to partisan redistricting —again a righteous battle — also served as acknowledgement the county as a whole favors the red team.

Much has been made about depressed Republican mail-in votes, something safely attributable to one Republican leader in the White House who seems intent on scaring his own voters away from a means of voting that has helped Florida Republicans for years. There were 38,365 Democratic ballots were cast by mail ballot in Sarasota to Republicans 25,571. That contributed to Republican turnout in the county on Tuesday being around 34.4% compared to Democrat’s 42.7%. Considering there were pivotal primaries in County Commission districts 1 and 5 and in state House District 72, that’s astounding.

But one also must note, there were still more Republican votes cast overall, with the GOP outperforming the blue team at the polls and in early voting.  A total of 48,199 out of 140,166 Republicans voted, compared to 44,652 of 104,526 Democrats. Even on a bad day, there’s more Sarasota County citizens registered as Republicans, and that will mean a great deal in November.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ MEDIA.