Florida

FLORIDA	27 Electoral Votes
	Florida went from 25 electoral votes to 27 as a result of the 2000 Census

Population
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Florida Secretary of State)

Total Population, July 1, 2004 est.	17,397,161
Total Registration, Nov. 2004	10,301,290

Dem. 4,261,249 (41.37%) Rep. 3,892,492 (37.79%) No Pty Aff. 1,886,013 (18.31%) Other Parties 261,536 (2.54%).
Florida has: 67 counties.
Largest counties: Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Pinellas.
Largest cities: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando. (Miami-Ft. Lauderdale is the largest metropolitan area).

Government
Governor: Jeb Bush (R) elected in 1998, re-elected in Nov. 2002.
State Legislature: Florida Legislature House: 120 seats Senate: 40 seats
Local: Counties, Cities NACO Counties
U.S. House: 18R, 7D - 1. J.Miller (R) | 2. A.Boyd (D) | 3. C.Brown (D) | 4. A.Crenshaw (R) | 5. V.Brown-Waite (R) | 6. C.Stearns (R) | 7. J.Mica (R) | 8. R.Keller (R) | 9. M.Bilirakis (R) | 10. C.W.B.Young (R) | 11. J.Davis (D) | 12. A.Putnam (R) | 13. K.Harris (R) | 14. P.Goss (R) | 15. D.Weldon (R) | 16. M.Foley (R) | 17. K.Meek (D) | 18. I.Ros-Lehtinen (R) | 19. R.Wexler (D) | 20. P.Deutsch (D) | 21. L.Diaz-Balart (R) | 22. E.C.Shaw (R) | 23. A.Hastings (D) | 24. T.Feeney (R) | 25. M.Diaz-Balart (R) *2 new seats in 2002 as a result of the 2000 Census. >>
U.S. Senate: Bill Nelson (D) elected in 2000, Bob Graham (D) announced Nov. 3, 2003 would not seek re-election in 2004. *open seat

In the race to succeed Sen. Bob Graham (D), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez (R) narrowly defeated former Florida Commissioner of Education Betty Castor (D) by 3,672,864 votes to 3,590,201 votes (49.4% to 48.3%), with 166,642 votes (2.2%) going to Veterans Party candidate Dennis Bradley. Two new congressmen were elected: Connie Mack (R) to succeed Rep. Porter Goss (R) in the 14th CD, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) to succeed Rep. Peter Deutsch (D) in the 20th. Ten of the 25 members did not face a major party opponent or even any opponent; the only winner to finish with less than 60% was Rep. Katherine Harris (R) who obtained 55.3% of the vote in the 13th CD.

State of Florida
Secretary of State

Constitution Party of FL
FL Democratic Party
Green Party of FL
Libertarian Party of FL
Natural Law Party of FL
Reform Party of FL
Republican Party of FL

Miami Herald
St. Petersburg Times
Media (Newsp.)
Media (TV)

Politics1-FL
Sayfie Review

The Sunshine State

General Election -- Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Voter Registration for the General Election closed October 4, 2004.

Early voting: Started October 18, 2004 (SoS: "The 2004 Legislature passed legislation which standardizes early voting throughout the state...all supervisors will begin conducting early voting in their main and branch offices 15 days before the election.")

Of 7,646,092 total votes cast:
4,865,283 voters (63.6%) cast ballots on Election Day
1,352,447 voters (17.7%) cast absentee ballots
1,428,362 voters (18.7%) cast ballots at early voting sites
In addition:
27,742 people cast provisional ballots
10,007 provisional ballots were counted

+Bush/Cheney (Rep.)

3,964,522

(52.10)

Kerry/Edwards (Dem.)
3,583,544

(47.09)

Peroutka/Baldwin (Const.) 6,626 (0.09)

Badnarik/Campagna (Lib.) 11,996
(0.16)

Cobb/LaMarche (Grn.)
3,917

(0.05)

Harris/Trowe (SWP)
2,732

(0.04)

Brown/Hebert (Soc.)
3,502

(0.05)

Nader/Camejo (Ref.)
32,971

(0.43)

Total........7,609,810

2004 Overview
There were no post-election dramatics this time, as Bush-Cheney carried the Sunshine State with a plurality of 380,978 votes (5.01 percentage points). About 1.5 million more votes were cast than in 2000.
General Election Details | Photos
Kerry/Allies | Bush/Cheney '04

(Primary Election: August 31, 2004)

Past Results

1996

Clinton (Dem.).....2,546,870
(48.02)

Dole (Rep.)..........2,244,536
(42.32)

Perot (Ref.)............483,870
(9.12)

Others (1+w/ins)......28,518
(0.54)

Total........5,303,794

1992

Bush (Rep.)........2,173,310
(40.89)

Clinton (Dem.).....2,072,798
(39.00)

Perot (Ind.) .........1,053,067
(19.82)

Others (1+w/ins)......15,317
(0.29)

Total........5,314,492

2000

+Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
2,912,790

(48.85)

Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
2,912,253

(48.84)

Browne/Olivier (Lib.)
16,415

(0.28)

Nader/LaDuke (Grn.)
97,488

(1.63)

Harris/Trowe (SWP)
562

(0.00)

Hagelin/Goldhaber (NLP)
2,281

(0.04)

Buchanan/Foster (Ref.)
17,484

(0.29)

McReynolds/Hollis (Soc.)
622

(0.00)

Phillips/Frazier (Const.)
1,371

(0.02)

Moorehead/LaRiva(WWP)
1,804

(0.03)

Chote/Lancaster (w/in)
34

-

McCarthy/Beifus (w/in)
6

-

Total........5,963,110

All told about 6.1 million people cast ballots in Florida. According to the Florida Task Force report there were 179,855 blank or spoiled ballots; this includes uncertified results from 3 counties. The Miami Herald, in its post-election analysis, examined 176,087 uncounted ballots: 111,261 overvotes and 64,826 undervotes, while. USA Today examined 171,908 untabulated ballots: 111,261 overvotes and 60,647 undervotes. The Florida Ballots Project suggests a total of around 172,000. However, all these numbers depend on what is counted. For example in some of the larger counties there were "trays and trays" of absentee ballots where, for example, the signatures didn't match, that didn't get counted.
Turnout as a percentage of voting age population was 50.65%. (U.S. avg: 53.76%).
Overview
It took a 36-day post-election odyssey to finalize the outcome, but Gov. Bush officially won Florida by 537 votes. The election was decided as much in the courts as at the polls (Battle for Florida), and there will always be doubts in some people's minds about who won. Bush carried 51 counties and the federal absentee ballots, while Vice President Gore won in 16 counties. The Democrats' base in Florida is in the southeast (Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade), while Republicans fared well in rural counties. Thus in many ways the race came down to the I-4 corridor, which runs across central Florida from Tampa Bay through Orlando to Daytona Beach.
General Election Activity

Presidential Preference Primary -- Tuesday, March 9, 2004

Democratic - Delegates: 201 Delegates and 27 Alternates. Official Results

Carol Moseley Braun	6,789	0.9%
Wesley Clark	10,226	1.4%
Howard Dean	20,834	2.8%
John Edwards	75,703	10.0%
Dick Gephardt	6,022	0.8%
+John Kerry	581,672	77.2%
Dennis J. Kucinich	17,198	2.3%
Joe Lieberman	14,287	1.9%
Al Sharpton	21,031	2.8%

Republican. 112 Delegates.

2000 page >