# Elections in Florida

Elections in Florida :
Federal government
Presidential elections
1848
1852
1856
1860
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Presidential primaries
Democratic
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Republican
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
U.S. Senate elections
1845
1848
1851
1855
1857
1868
1875
1879
1881
1885
1887
1890
1891
1893 sp
1897
1899
1899 sp
1903
1905 sp
1908
1909 sp
1911
1914
1916
1920
1922
1926
1928
1932
1934
1936 sp
1938
1940
1944
1946
1950
1952
1956
1958
1962
1964
1968
1970
1974
1976
1980
1982
1986
1988
1992
1994
1998
2000
2004
2006
2010
2012
2016
2018
2022
2024
2026 sp
2028
U.S. House of Representatives elections
1845
AL sp
1846
1848
1850
1852
1854
1856
1858
1860
1865
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1955
6th sp
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1989
18th sp
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2001
1st sp
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
19th sp
2012
2014
13th sp
19th sp
2016
2018
2020
2022
20th sp
2024
2025
1st sp
6th sp
C.S. House of Representatives elections
1861
1863
1st sp :
State government
General elections
2006
2010
2014
2018
2020
2022
2026
Gubernatorial elections
1845
1848
1852
1856
1860
1865
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1954 sp
1956
1960
1964
1966
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Attorney General elections
1966
1970
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Chief Financial Officer elections
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Agriculture Commissioner elections
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Senate elections
2018
2020
2022
2024
House of Representatives elections
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Ballot measures
1998 Florida Amendment 8
2008 Florida Amendment 2
2014 Florida Amendment 2
2016 Florida Amendment 1
2016 Florida Amendment 2
2018 Florida Amendment 4
2020 Florida Amendment 1
2020 Florida Amendment 2
2020 Florida Amendment 3
2020 Florida Amendment 4
2020 Florida Amendment 5
2022 Florida Amendment 1
2022 Florida Amendment 2
2022 Florida Amendment 3
2024 Florida Amendment 3
2024 Florida Amendment 4 :
Jacksonville
Mayoral elections
2003
2007
2011
2015
2019
2023
Sheriff elections
2022 sp :
Miami
Mayoral elections
1997
2001
2005
2009
2013
2017
2021
2025 :
Miami-Dade County
Mayoral elections
1996
2008
2011 (recall)
2011 sp
2012
2016
2020
2024 :
Orlando
Mayoral elections
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2003 sp
2004
2008
2012
2015
2019
2023 :
St. Petersburg
Mayoral elections
2001
2005
2009
2013
2017
2021 :
Tallahassee
Mayoral elections
1997
2003 sp
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022 :
Tampa
Mayoral elections
2003
2007
2011
2015
2019
2023 :
Other localities
Fort Lauderdale
1994
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
2012
2015
2018
2020
Gainesville
2016
2019
2022
Hialeah
2011
Miami Beach
2011
2013
2015
North Miami
2013
2014 sp
2017
2021
Orange County
2010
2022
Pensacola
2022 :
Government :
vte :
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. 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.
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 :
| 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

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.

## Florida in national elections

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.
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. 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.

## History

United States presidential election results for Florida :
| Year | Republican / Whig | Republican / Whig | Democratic | Democratic | Third party(ies) | Third party(ies) |
| Year | 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.
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. In 1966, Claude Kirk was elected the first Republican governor of Florida since Reconstruction. 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, 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. 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. 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.

## Election security

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.
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.
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.

## Party affiliation

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.
* In 2016, Democrats registered 38%, Republicans 36%, and 26% other.
* In 2018, Democrats registered 37%, Republicans 35%, and 28% other.
* In 2021, Democrats registered 35.6%, Republicans 35.9%, and 28.5% other.