Elections in Florida

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Elections in Florida
Federal government

Presidential elections:
2000 2004

Florida primaries:
Democratic, 2008 Republican, 2008
State government

Gubernatorial elections:
2006

other elections:
2006 US Senate
Jacksonville mayoral election, 2007
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Elections in the US state of 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]

Contents

[edit] Voter Qualifications

All citizens of the United States, over the age of eighteen and who are permanent residents of this state, may register to vote as a qualified elector of Florida unless they are convicted of a felony or found to be mentally incompetent.

[edit] State elections

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 8 years in either house.

[edit] Florida in national elections

Florida received international attention for its role in the 2000 Presidential election, where Bush led 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.[2]

Florida will hold its 2008 Presidential primary on the 29 January 2008 after a bill was passed in May 2007 moving it forward in the electoral calendar.[3] 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 in the Democrats' convention, while the Republicans stripped Florida of half its delegates to the GOP convention. A federal judge dismissed a suit from democrat senator Bill Nelson against the DNC and chairman Howard Dean to overturn this decision.[4]

[edit] History

In the first half of the Nineteenth Century the right to vote was held only by white males aged over 21. 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 letting poorer Floridans vote and in 1944 the United States Supreme Court invalidated a system of white-only primary elections.[5]

It was in 1966 that Claude Kirk was elected the first Republican Governor of Florida since Reconstruction.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Florida Constitution
  2. ^ Parties struggle to control primaries
  3. ^ Early primary gives Florida a big say in '08 vote
  4. ^ Judge dismisses primary date lawsuit Miami Herald, December 6 2007
  5. ^ A Brief History of Florida
  6. ^ Florida:Timeline

[edit] External links

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