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.[1] For state elections, the Governor of Florida, Lieutenant Governor, and the members of the Florida Cabinet, and members of the Florida Senate are elected every four years; members of the Florida House of Representatives are elected every two years.

In a 2020 study, Florida was ranked as the 11th hardest state for citizens to vote in.[2]

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 of Florida unless they are convicted of a felony or found to be mentally incompetent.

Gubernatorial election results[3]
Year Democratic Republican
1952 74.8% 624,463 25.2% 210,009
1956 73.7% 747,753 26.3% 266,980
1960 59.8% 849,407 40.1% 569,936
1964 56.1% 933,554 41.3% 686,297
1966 44.9% 668,233 55.1% 821,190
1970 56.9% 984,305 43.1% 746,243
1974 61.2% 1,118,954 38.8% 709,438
1978 55.6% 1,406,580 44.4% 1,123,888
1982 64.7% 1,739,553 35.3% 949,013
1986 45.4% 1,538,620 54.6% 1,847,525
1990 56.5% 1,995,206 43.5% 1,535,068
1994 50.8% 2,135,008 49.2% 2,071,068
1998 44.7% 1,773,054 55.3% 2,191,105
2002 43.2% 2,201,427 56.0% 2,856,845
2006 45.1% 2,178,289 52.2% 2,519,845
2010 47.7% 2,557,785 48.9% 2,619,335
2014 47.1% 2,801,198 48.1% 2,865,343
2018 49.2% 4,043,723 49.6% 4,076,186
2022 40.0% 3,105,469 59.4% 4,613,783

State elections

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The Governor of Florida, Lieutenant Governor, and the members of the Florida Cabinet are elected every four years. Members of the Florida House of Representatives are elected every two years, while members of the Florida Senate are elected every four years.

Candidates for the Florida legislature 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.[4]

Florida in national elections

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Florida received international attention for its role in the 2000 presidential election, where George W. Bush led Al Gore by only a couple of hundred votes when the Supreme Court of the United States 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.[5]

Florida held its 2008 presidential primary on January 29, 2008 after a bill was passed in May 2007 moving it sooner on the electoral calendar.[6] 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 against the DNC and chairman Howard Dean to overturn this decision.[7]

History

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United States presidential election results for Florida[3]
Year Republican / Whig Democratic Third party(ies)
No.  % No.  % No.  %
2024 6,110,125 55.87% 4,683,038 42.82% 142,302 1.30%
2020 5,668,731 51.11% 5,297,045 47.76% 125,982 1.14%
2016 4,617,886 48.60% 4,504,975 47.41% 379,886 4.00%
2012 4,163,447 49.03% 4,237,756 49.90% 90,972 1.07%
2008 4,046,219 48.10% 4,282,367 50.91% 83,662 0.99%
2004 3,964,522 52.10% 3,583,544 47.09% 61,744 0.81%
2000 2,912,790 48.85% 2,912,253 48.84% 138,067 2.32%
1996 2,244,536 42.32% 2,546,870 48.02% 512,388 9.66%
1992 2,173,310 40.89% 2,072,698 39.00% 1,068,384 20.10%
1988 2,618,885 60.87% 1,656,701 38.51% 26,727 0.62%
1984 2,730,350 65.32% 1,448,816 34.66% 885 0.02%
1980 2,046,951 55.52% 1,419,475 38.50% 220,600 5.98%
1976 1,469,531 46.64% 1,636,000 51.93% 45,100 1.43%
1972 1,857,759 71.91% 718,117 27.80% 7,407 0.29%
1968 886,804 40.53% 676,794 30.93% 624,207 28.53%
1964 905,941 48.85% 948,540 51.15% 0 0.00%
1960 795,476 51.51% 748,700 48.49% 0 0.00%
1956 643,849 57.27% 480,371 42.73% 0 0.00%
1952 544,036 54.99% 444,950 44.97% 351 0.04%
1948 194,280 33.63% 281,988 48.82% 101,375 17.55%
1944 143,215 29.68% 339,377 70.32% 0 0.00%
1940 126,158 25.99% 359,334 74.01% 0 0.00%
1936 78,248 23.90% 249,117 76.08% 67 0.02%
1932 69,170 25.04% 206,307 74.68% 775 0.28%
1928 144,168 56.83% 101,764 40.12% 7,742 3.05%
1924 30,633 28.06% 62,083 56.88% 16,438 15.06%
1920 44,853 30.79% 90,515 62.13% 10,313 7.08%
1916 14,611 18.10% 55,984 69.34% 10,139 12.56%
1912 4,279 8.42% 35,343 69.52% 11,215 22.06%
1908 10,654 21.58% 31,104 63.01% 7,602 15.40%
1904 8,314 21.15% 27,046 68.80% 3,949 10.05%
1900 7,355 18.55% 28,273 71.31% 4,021 10.14%
1896 11,298 24.30% 32,756 70.46% 2,434 5.24%
1892 0 0.00% 30,153 85.01% 5,318 14.99%
1888 26,529 39.89% 39,557 59.48% 414 0.62%
1884 28,031 46.73% 31,769 52.96% 190 0.32%
1880 23,654 45.83% 27,964 54.17% 0 0.00%
1876 23,849 50.99% 22,927 49.01% 0 0.00%
1872 17,763 53.52% 15,427 46.48% 0 0.00%
1860 0 0.00% 223 1.68% 13,078 98.32%
1856 0 0.00% 6,358 56.81% 4,833 43.19%
1852 2,875 39.97% 4,318 60.03% 0 0.00%
1848 4,120 57.20% 3,083 42.80% 0 0.00%

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 was repealed by the state legislature, allowing poorer Floridians to vote, and in 1944 the United States Supreme Court invalidated a system of white-only primary elections.[8]

Florida was originally part of the Solid South, 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 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.[9] In 1966, Claude Kirk was elected the first Republican governor of Florida since Reconstruction.[10] This was followed in 1968, with Republicans winning a Senate seat in the state for the first time since Reconstruction.

The Florida Elections Commission was established in 1973. In 2005, Jeb Bush signed a bill to abolish primary runoff elections,[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]

Election security

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On August 8, 2018 Senator Bill Nelson told the Tampa Bay Times 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 for the state.[15]

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.[16]

In May 2019, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Russians hacked voting databases in two Florida counties prior to the 2016 presidential election and no election results were compromised.[17][18][19]

Party affiliation

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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.[20]
  • In 2016, Democrats registered 38%, Republicans 36%, and 26% other.[21]
  • In 2018, Democrats registered 37%, Republicans 35%, and 28% other.
  • In 2021, Democrats registered 35.6%, Republicans 35.9%, and 28.5% other.[22]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Florida Constitution". Archived from the original on 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2007-12-07.
  2. ^ J. Pomante II, Michael; Li, Quan (15 Dec 2020). "Cost of Voting in the American States: 2020". Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy. 19 (4): 503–509. doi:10.1089/elj.2020.0666. S2CID 225139517. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  3. ^ a b Leip, David. "General Election Results – Florida". United States Election Atlas. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  4. ^ Muro, Chris (February 3, 2015). "Ruling could affect state's judicial selection". Florida Today. Melbourne, Florida. pp. 7A.
  5. ^ Parties struggle to control primaries
  6. ^ Early primary gives Florida a big say in '08 vote
  7. ^ Judge dismisses primary date lawsuit Miami Herald, December 6, 2007
  8. ^ A Brief History of Florida
  9. ^ "Florida Presidential Election Voting History - 270toWin".
  10. ^ Florida:Timeline Archived 2007-04-04 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Runoff primary election is history now, Orlando Sentinel
  12. ^ "Republicans win big in Florida, flipping long Democratic Miami-Dade". 9 November 2022.
  13. ^ "Florida to have 2 Republican senators for the first time since the Reconstruction era". 10NEWS. November 18, 2018. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
  14. ^ "Voter Registration - By Party Affiliation - Division of Elections - Florida Department of State". dos.myflorida.com. Archived from the original on 2021-09-17. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  15. ^ "Senator says Russia has 'penetrated' Florida election systems". Engadget. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  16. ^ "An 11-year-old hacked a replica of Florida's voting system in 10 minutes". Vox. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  17. ^ "Gov. DeSantis: Russians hacked voting databases in two Florida counties; The GOP governor said the incidents took place in 2016 and no election results were compromised". Associated Press. May 14, 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2019 – via nbcnews.com.
  18. ^ Brendan Farrington (May 14, 2019). "DeSantis: Russians accessed 2 Florida voting databases". apnews.com. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  19. ^ Miles Parks (May 14, 2019). "Florida Governor Says Russian Hackers Breached 2 Counties In 2016". NPR.org. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  20. ^ Dockery, Paula (October 19, 2013). "In the middle sits a silent majority". Florida Today. Melbourne, Florida. pp. 13A. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  21. ^ "Voter Registration - Current by County - Division of Elections - Florida Department of State". dos.myflorida.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-24. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  22. ^ "Voter Registration - By Party Affiliation - Division of Elections - Florida Department of State". dos.myflorida.com. Archived from the original on 2021-09-17. Retrieved 2022-02-14.

Further reading

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