Electoral reform Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of: * Voting systems, such as proportional representation, a two-round system (runoff voting), instant-ru ...

in Florida refers to efforts to change the voting and election laws in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

state of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Ranked-choice voting

Voters in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...

voted to switch to

ranked-choice voting Ranked-choice voting may be used as a synonym for: * Ranked voting, a term used for any voting system in which voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference * Instant-runoff voting (IRV), a specific ranked voting system with single-w ...

in November 2007.

Ballots

Florida came under pressure to reform its mechanical

butterfly ballot A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16t ...

system after that system was associated with a sufficient number of

spoiled ballot In voting, a ballot is considered spoilt, spoiled, void, null, informal, invalid or stray if a law declares or an election authority determines that it is invalid and thus not included in the vote count. This may occur accidentally or deliberat ...

s to have decided the

2000 U.S. presidential election The 2000 United States presidential election was the 54th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and eldest son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush ...

. The card punchers in some cases became clogged with

chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

s which prevented ballots from punching completely through, resulting in an

undervote An undervote occurs when the number of distinct choices selected by a voter in a contest is less than the maximum number allowed for that contest or when no selection is made for a single choice contest. In a contested election, an undervote can be ...

. They were largely replaced with

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...

electronic voting machines. A more recent requirement is for paper ballots or a voter-verified paper record of some type. Some counties are in process of transitioning away from DRE (Direct Recording Electronic voting machines), except possibly for certain persons with disabilities who need specific accommodations. SB7066, Amendment 834194, also contains language to control the use of BMDs (Ballot Marking Devices): "(41) “Voter interface device” means any device that communicates voting instructions and ballot information to a voter and allows the voter to select and vote for candidates and issues. A voter interface device may not be used to tabulate votes. Any vote tabulation must be based upon a subsequent scan of the marked marksense ballot or the voter-verifiable paper output after the voter interface device process has been completed." In light of the successful Russian hacking into the election systems of two Florida counties in the 2016 election, as documented in Volume 1 of the Mueller Report, additional attention is being focused on securing Florida voting systems and county electronic voter registration pollbooks prior to the 2020 election.

Expansion of the electorate

Florida previously had rigorous felony disenfranchisement laws that denied approximately 400,000 people the privilege of voting In 2007, at the urging of Gov. Charlie Crist, the laws were relaxed, allowing hundreds of thousands of non-violent offenders to regain their voting rights after having served their prison terms. In 2018, Amendment 4 to the Florida Constitution was passed statewide by voters, and the laws were relaxed, which would allow most ex-felons (totally 1.4 million in Florida) to regain the right to vote. However, the 2019 Florida State Legislature, in direct contradiction to the expressed will of the voters, passed SB7066, which once again severely restricted the right of ex-felons to register to vote if they might still owe monies for court costs, fines, or restitution. Since the process of verifying what monies are still owed is extremely cumbersome, due to multiple information sources and records that may be non-existent or scattered in various departments, efforts are being made in some counties to streamline the verification process. All qualified voters are allowed to vote absentee under Florida law.Absentee Voting
Florida Division of Elections.

Allocation of electoral votes

In 2007, SB 2568 was introduced in the Florida Senate to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and award Florida's 27 electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote. The bill failed.

References

External links

Fairvote Florida
{{DEFAULTSORT:Electoral Reform In Florida