Title: In Re Advisory Opinion of Gov. Request
Citation: 301 So. 2d 4
Docket Number: 46147
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: September 20, 1974

301 So. 2d 4 (1974)
In re ADVISORY OPINION OF the GOVERNOR REQUEST OF SEPTEMBER 6, 1974.
No. 46147.

Supreme Court of Florida.
September 20, 1974.
PER CURIAM:
Dear Governor Askew:
We have the honor to acknowledge your communication of September 6, 1974, requesting our advice pursuant to Section 1(c), Article IV, Constitution of Florida, relating to certain executive powers and duties.
Omitting the formal parts, your letter reads as follows:
Upon receipt of your communication, an Interlocutory Order was entered, announcing that the questions propounded were answerable and soliciting the filing of briefs by interested parties.
The issue to be determined by your questions concerns your authority to appoint a judicial officer to a vacancy for a term ending in January, 1977. Article V, Section 11(a), quoted fully in paragraph three of your letter, provides in part:
The Constitution, in Article V, Section 10(a), left to the Legislature the task of determining the manner of judicial elections, partisan or nonpartisan, and the time at which they would be held. The Legislature responded by enacting Florida Statute Section 105.021 which provides:
Under the provisions of this statute, the first and second judicial elections for 1974 are September 10 and October 1.
To harmonize these two provisions, we construe the words "primary and general election," as used in Article V, Section 11, to mean the nonpartisan judicial election process as established by the Legislature.
It is clear that the present constitutional provision contemplates the utilization of the new appointive process to fill judicial vacancies until the next judicial election. We recognize that a vacancy does not occur until the date upon which the office actually becomes vacant. In re Advisory Opinion to the Governor, 117 Fla. 773, 777, 158 So. 441, 442 (1934), with the exception of those circumstances establishing artificial vacancies created by the resign-to-run law, In re Advisory Opinion *7 to the Governor, 239 So. 2d 247 (Fla. 1970); In re Advisory Opinion to the Governor, 276 So. 2d 25, 30 (Fla. 1973), and the circumstance which created the Mr. Justice Ervin vacancy, Spector v. Glisson, No. 45,893 (mandate entered August 2, 1974, with opinion to follow). In both of these exceptions the electorate had ample time to fill the vacancy in an appropriate election process, and the effective date of the vacancy coincided with the commencement of the terms of other judicial officers elected during the same elective process.
The timing of the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Huttoe makes it impossible to practicably hold the election and allow ample time to afford the electorate an opportunity to fill the vacancy in the 1974 elections. This situation clearly does not fall in one of the excepted categories.
It is our opinion, under the related circumstances contained in your letter, that vacancies occurring after midnight, September 10, 1974, should be filled by the selection process set forth in the Constitution for a term expiring in January, 1977. Consequently, you may proceed under the nominating commission selection process prescribed in Article V, Section 11, to fill the vacancy created by Judge Huttoe's resignation effective October 1, 1974, until the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January, 1977. You may further proceed to accept the resignation of Judge Mann, effective immediately, and fill the vacancy in the aforementioned manner.