1. When governor awful gets around to calling an election in house district 64 there will be no better time for a candidacy with a relevant electoral reform message.

2. Texas is holding a special election on December 6 to fill a senate seat which had been held by a senator who was elected Comptroller, and resigned after he had been elected. The proclamation was made on November 14. The district has 800,000 persons and covers 18 counties, and parts of 3 others, and is conducted in up to 4 languages, and even includes 3 days of early voting in person.

   There are no party primaries, and there is no qualification for party labels. States like Washington, Oregon, and Montana should discard the nonsense of appointment to fill legislative vacancies based on a horrid ideology that transfers control of a public office to a private political party.

   States should also eliminate partisan primaries at least for special elections.

3. There are a number of errors in the story.

   The problem was not that there was a write-in candidate. It was that Florida statute attempted to impose a district residency qualification contrary to the Florida Constitution. The Florida constitution does not require residency prior to the time of election. It does require that a legislator be a Florida citizen for two years prior to election. This is quite analogous to the US Constitution, where representative do not have to be resident of their state prior to election, but must have been US Citizens for 7 years.

   The courts then compounded the problem by acting too late to actually open the primary in August; and then when they simply discarded the primary results and moved the primary election to November, but had another court decision that required a write-in space.

   It makes no sense to exclude write-in candidates from consideration. If a write-in space is simply to let people protest or write-in Donald Duck, it serves no real purpose. So instead, write-in candidates have to be considered legitimate. And if they weren’t, there would be individuals who will assist with paying the filing fee. You may recall the Green Party candidates who may have been assisted by Republicans to get on the ballot. In that case, the Democrats financed the lawsuit and provided the lawyers for the Green Party. Neither the candidates or the party had the resources to do anything on their own.

   The official of the League of Women Voters misses the whole point when she suggests the Florida open its primaries. A truly independent voter is not going to take a Republican ballot in order to vote in the primary for the state house. They are going to choose a party ballot based on whether they find the gubernatorial or senate primary more interesting. And Democrats are not going to be able to vote in the Republican primary.

   The only way to permit all voters to fully participate in the election of all their officials is to adopt an election system like those used in Louisiana, Washington, or California.

   All the ranting about gerrymandering in the article is misplaced. The Florida constitution forbids political consideration in redistricting. And even if individuals were able to influence the legislature with partisan-motivated suggestions, a competent gerrymanderer is not going to make a district overwhelmingly Republican.

   The governor has now called the special election for HD-64. It was only officially vacant as of last Tuesday, and there might not have been official notification.

   There are now 5 special elections set in Florida. One is for HD-13, where the incumbent (who was unopposed) failed to properly complete his paperwork. There had been speculation that the special election could not be called until after the general election. But the governor’s proclamation was September 10. Under Florida’s leisurely schedule, the partisan primary will be December 16, and the special election in February. Ordinarily, the district would not have a Republican candidate, but there are two Democrats and one Republican running. This will keep the Democratic-primary closed, but also delay final seating. Pick your conspiracy theory.

   There is also a senate district that became vacant immediately after the general election, when the senator-elect was officially named President of Florida State University. He had waited until the board had made an official decision. In that case, the proclamation was November 10, the primary on January 27, and the election on April 7. Two representatives are planning to run for the senate seat, and had the good sense to resign. There are special elections in those districts on the same days.

   IN HD-14, the proclamation was two weeks later, and the elections will be two weeks later (February 10 and April 21).

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