I had to drop by the Supervisor of Elections office the other day and I noticed they had already put a sample ballot for the November election on their bulletin board. As I scanned the names and offices there was something that I noticed. All of the Republicans listed on the ballot were listed first on the ballot. They were not listed alphabetically nor with the current incumbent listed first. Instead, every Republican running for office was listed first. I asked one of the staff why that had occurred and she said she would have to get with the Supervisor and speak with him and that I could come back in a few days for the answer. I said I would and went home. When I got home, I went on-line to the Florida Secretary of State's office and navigated to the elections office. There I was able to find Florida state statute 101.151 which deals with state elections (an example of that "Primary Source" thing) and my question was answered. According to the statute:
(3)(a) The names of the candidates of the party that received the highest number of votes for Governor in the last election in which a Governor was elected shall be placed first for each office on the general election ballot, together with an appropriate abbreviation of the party name; the names of the candidates of the party that received the second highest vote for Governor shall be placed second for each office, together with an appropriate abbreviation of the party name.
As I continued to read I also noticed that this was a different ranking from the primary election. That part of the statute reads:
(4)(a) The names of each office shall be arranged alphabetically as to surnames on a primary ballot.
(b) When two or more candidates running for the same office on a primary election ballot have the same or similar surname the word "incumbent" shall appear next to the incumbent's name.
When I went back to the Supervisor of Elections office the next day he confirmed that all of this was accurate. Florida is 1 of 8 states that do this.
I wanted the citizens of Jefferson County to understand that this means you need to read the ballot carefully as you go to vote to make sure the person you WANT to vote for is the person you are ACTUALLY voting for.
Don Howarth