Elections in Florida are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November in even-numbered years, as provided for in Article 6 of the
Florida Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Florida is the document that establishes and describes the powers, duties, structure, and function of the government of the U.S. state of Florida, and establishes the basic law of the state. The current Constitu ...
.
For state elections, the
Governor of Florida
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...
, Lieutenant Governor, and the members of the Florida Cabinet, and members of the
Florida Senate
The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida House of Representatives being the lower house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...
are elected every four years; members of the
Florida House of Representatives
The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...
are elected every two years. In national elections, Florida plays an important role as the largest bellwether state, occasionally determining the outcome of elections for U.S. President — as it did in 1876 and in 2000.
In a 2020 study, Florida was ranked as the 11th hardest state for citizens to vote in.
All citizens of the United States, over the age of eighteen and who are permanent residents of the state, may register to vote as a qualified
elector
Elector may refer to:
* Prince-elector or elector, a member of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors
* Elector, a member of an electoral college
** Confederate elector, a member of ...
of Florida unless they are convicted of a
felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
or found to be
mentally incompetent
In United States and Canadian law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings or transactions, and the mental condition a person must have to be responsible for his or her decisions or acts. Comp ...
.
State elections
The
Governor of Florida
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...
, Lieutenant Governor, and the members of the Florida Cabinet are elected every four years. Members of the
Florida House of Representatives
The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...
are elected every two years, while members of the
Florida Senate
The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida House of Representatives being the lower house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...
are elected every four years.
Candidates for the
Florida legislature
The Florida Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. State of Florida. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the Senate, and a lower chamber, the House of Representatives. Article III, Section 1 of the Florida Cons ...
may serve no more than 2 consecutive terms (8 years) as Senator, or 4 consecutive terms (8 years) as Representative.
Voters determine whether judges at the state level should be retained, at the end of their respective term. Since this law was enacted in 1974, no judge has ever been removed from office by failure of retention.
Florida in national elections
Florida received international attention for its role in the
2000 presidential election, where
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
led
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
by only a couple of hundred votes when the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
ended a recount. It had also played a role in the equally contested
1876 presidential election and is often seen as one of the key swing states in presidential elections.
Florida held its 2008
presidential primary
The presidential primary elections and caucuses held in the various U.S. state, states, the Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, and territories of the United States form part of the nominating process of candidates for United States preside ...
on January 29, 2008 after a bill was passed in May 2007 moving it sooner on the electoral calendar. This move was in violation of party rules restricting primaries held before February 5 to Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. The Democratic Party eventually decided to strip Florida of all its 210 delegates at the Democrats' convention, while the Republicans stripped Florida of half its delegates to the GOP convention. A federal judge dismissed a suit from Democratic Senator
Bill Nelson
Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nelson previously served as a United States Senator from Flor ...
against the
DNC and chairman
Howard Dean
Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 200 ...
to overturn this decision.
History
In the first half of the 19th century, the right to vote was held only by white males aged 21 and over. After 1920, women were able to vote with the passing of the
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1937, the requirement to pay a
poll tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
was repealed by the state legislature, allowing poorer Floridians to vote, and in 1944 the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
invalidated a system of white-only primary elections.
Florida was originally part of the
Solid South
The Solid South or Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in those states. The Southern bloc existed especial ...
, as Democrats overwhelmingly won state and federal elections during the hundred years following the Civil War. However, in 1937, the requirement to pay a
poll tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
was repealed by the state legislature, allowing poorer Floridians to vote, and coupled with a growing tourist industry in the mid-20th century that attracted Northern retirees, the state became electorally competitive earlier than the rest of the South. Since 1928, the state has only voted for the losing presidential candidate three times, all for losing Republicans in 1960, 1992, and 2020. In 1966,
Claude Kirk
Claude Roy Kirk Jr. (January 7, 1926 – September 28, 2011) was the 36th governor of the U.S. state of Florida (1967–1971). He was the first Republican governor of Florida since Reconstruction.
Early life
Kirk was born in San Bernardino, C ...
was elected the first
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
governor of Florida since
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
. This was followed in 1968, with Republicans winning a Senate seat in the state for the first time since Reconstruction.
The
Florida Elections Commission
The Florida Election Commission (FEC) is an organisation set up in 1973 to enforce campaign finance laws in the United States' state of Florida. "The commission is composed of nine members appointed by the governor
A governor is an administrat ...
was established in 1973. In 2005, Jeb Bush signed a bill to abolish primary runoff elections, resulting in all primary and general elections being determined by plurality rather than majority.
The state is dominated by Republicans on the state level, as Democrats have not held the governorship or either house of the legislature since 1999. Republicans currently have veto-proof majorities in both houses of the Florida legislature. However, the state has become increasingly Republican since the late 2010s, as in 2018, Republicans captured both Senate seats in the state for the first time since Reconstruction. In 2020, Florida voted 7.8 points right of the nation as a whole, the furthest it has voted from the nation since 1988, and it was the first election since 1992 that Florida backed the losing candidate. In 2022, Republicans won their largest statewide victories since Reconstruction and neared 60% of the vote. In 2021, registered Republicans surpassed Democrats for the first time in state history.
Election security
On August 8, 2018
Senator Bill Nelson told the ''
Tampa Bay Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single y ...
'' that Florida's voting system had been penetrated by Russian hacking efforts. Senator Nelson noted that the likely target of hacking efforts was
voter rolls
An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...
for the state.
During
DEF CON 26 in 2018, an 11-year-old reportedly hacked into a Florida state election website replica in just 10 minutes by taking advantage of expired
SSL certificates. The participants of this event also discovered vulnerabilities of the state voting machines via the memory card and rendering a voter's ballot invalid.
In
May 2019, Republican
Florida Governor
The governor of Florida is the head of government of the state of Florida and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Florida ...
Ron DeSantis
Ronald Dion DeSantis (; born September 14, 1978) is an American politician serving as the 46th governor of Florida since January 2019. A member of the Republican Party, DeSantis represented Florida's 6th district in the U.S. House of Represe ...
announced
Russians hacked voting databases in two Florida counties prior to the
2016 presidential election and no election results were compromised.
Party affiliation
The following statistics show party affiliation of registered Florida voters:
* In 1972, Democratic registered 69%, Republican 28%, and 3% other.
* In 1992, Democratic registered 51%, Republicans 41%, and 8% other.
* In 2013, Democrats registered 40%, Republicans 35%, and 25% other.
* In 2016, Democrats registered 38%, Republicans 36%, and 26% other.
* In 2018, Democrats registered 37%, Republicans 35%, and 28% other.
* In 2021, Democrats registered 35.6%, Republicans 35.9%, and 28.5% other.
See also
*
Florida elections, 2020
*
Politics of Florida
Politics of Florida reflect a state that has experienced conflict between its liberal southern region and its traditionally conservative northern region. Politics often revolve around budgeting and how ...
**
Political party strength in Florida
The following tables indicate party affiliation in the U.S. state of Florida for the individual elected offices of:
*Governor
* Lieutenant Governor
* Attorney General
* Chief Financial Officer
* Commissioner of Agriculture
As well as the followin ...
**
Florida Democratic Party
The Florida Democratic Party (FDP) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Florida, headquartered in Tallahassee. Former mayor of Miami Manny Diaz Sr. is the current chair.
Andrew Jackson, the first territorial governor o ...
**
Republican Party of Florida
The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Florida. It is currently the state's favored party, controlling the majority of Florida's U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, supermajori ...
*
Government of Florida
The government of Florida is established and operated according to the Constitution of Florida and is composed of three separation of powers, branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the governor of Florida and the other electe ...
*
United States presidential elections in Florida
Florida is a state in the South Atlantic region of the United States. Since its admission to the Union in March 1845, it has participated in 43 United States presidential elections. Florida participated in the presidential election for the first ...
*
Women's suffrage in Florida
The first Women's suffrage in the United States, women's suffrage effort in Florida was led by Eleanor McWilliams Chamberlain, Ella C. Chamberlain in the early 1890s. Chamberlain began writing a women's suffrage Column (periodical), news column, st ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
Florida Division of Electionsgovernment website
Florida Elections Commissiongovernment website
* (State affiliate of the U.S.
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for vot ...
)
*
*
*
Digital Public Library of America
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a US project aimed at providing public access to digital holdings in order to create a large-scale public digital library. It officially launched on April 18, 2013, after two and a half years of dev ...
. Assorted materials related t
Florida elections*
{{Florida
Government of Florida
Political events in Florida