Voters Have to Hunt for Charlie Crist’s Name on Florida Ballots

Ballot
In the words of John Lennon: Number Nine. Number Nine. Number Nine...

With polls showing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist at about 30 percent in his race for U.S. Senate against Tea Party Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek, the newly independent candidate is already swimming upstream.

I just got my sample ballot, and not only is Crist not listed third, he’s at number nine, ahead only of one other guy and the space to write someone in.

Blame it, along with many of his other campaign woes, on Charlie’s decision to go no party affiliation (NPA) rather than face Rubio in a Republican primary.

Here’s how ballot order works in Florida.

Florida Statutes, 101.151(2)(b):

The last time ten names were listed for one office on a Florida ballot was in 2000. And you know how that turned out.

“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 under the heading for each office on the general election ballot, together with an appropriate abbreviation of party name; the names of the candidates of the party that received the second highest vote for Governor shall be second under the heading for each office, together with an appropriate abbreviation of the party name.”

So that explains why Rubio jumped to first and Meek is second, but why is Charlie second from last?

By law, minor party candidates are next [after the Republicans and Democrats]: in this case, Libertarian Alexander Snitker followed by Bernie DeCastro of the Constitution Party of Florida.

No-party candidates are listed in the order in which they filed their official papers — not alphabetically.

Charlie kept everyone guessing about his true intentions right up to the end of the qualifying period, which added drama and buzz to his campaign but he’s paying a price in ballot placement. As usual, Crist is downplaying any missteps.

“I don’t think that’s a big deal,” Crist said. “We’re just going to have to have an education process to make sure people know it’s not the normal course of affairs.”

History, however, is the kicker. The last time ten names were listed for one office on a Florida ballot was in 2000. The race was for president, and featured George W. Bush and Al Gore. And you know how that turned out.

Connect:

4 thoughts on “Voters Have to Hunt for Charlie Crist’s Name on Florida Ballots”

  1. I just voted yesterday; my absentee ballot DID NOT have Charlie Christ’s name anywhere on it. I was surprised and so my roommate checked as well, and he didn’t see it either. I consider myself a good reader.

  2. ….ok, scratch that: I see now that his name was under Kendrick Meek’s name, and I voted for Meek. I simply stopped reading the names when I saw Kendrick Meek, and marked it. Sorry, folks.

  3. Which party controls Congress? that your White House? The answer reveals that “balance of power” between the two branches of government that have elected officials. Contrary for you to popular belief, most of the time in modern political history Congress as well as President have been from odds; that is, the identical political party has not necessarily typically controlled the white wine House, the Senate, and also the House of Representatives. Only 10 times given that 1945 have both branches of Congress as well as the Presidency been controlled from the same party.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.