I’m watching the bills being proposed and making their way through the Florida State Legislature and will from time to time be highlighting bills of specific interest.
There are three bills I am watching that could have significant impact on our local elections. Registered voters should be aware of the potential impact if these bills make it through committee.
These three bills are House Joint Resolution (HJR) 31, Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 94, and House Joint Resolution 405. These three bills have significant impact on future elections in Florida.
House Joint Resolution 405 is intended to eliminate any Open Primaries that could currently occur in the State of Florida.
Today, if all the candidates in a primary belong to one party, then all registered voters may vote in the primary for that office. This has resulted in cases of individuals filing to run as a “Write-In” candidate and thus closing the primary to only registered voters of the party.
Illustrative example, if the Primary candidates for County Commissioner are all Republican, then every registered voter may vote for one of those candidates. However, if a “Write-In” candidate appears on the ballot, only voters registered as a Republican can vote for the Republican candidates in the primary. If there are no Democratic candidates, then voters registered as Democrats are unable to vote for a candidate for Commissioner. Likewise, voters registered with No Party Affiliation, Libertarian, Green Party, or other “third parties” are unable to vote for a candidate.
Another component being addressed in HJR 405 is to eliminate non-partisan elections.
The proposed new language would be added to the ballot as a proposed Constitutional Amendment in the next General Election.
House Joint Resolution 31 and Senate Joint Resolution 94 are similar but specific to School Boards. These resolutions would require School Board Elections to be partisan. This would also require a Constitutional Amendment and would appear on the next General Election ballot.
Impact
Each of these bills has far reaching impact on voters who choose to have No Party Affiliation. These bills effectively disenfranchise voters who choose to be independent of a party affiliation.
In counties that are majority one party, whether it is Democrat or Republican, the elimination of Open Primaries disenfranchises all voters registered in minority parties. Where today they may be able to participate in a Primary with all candidates of one party; this law would prohibit their participation. If a county has 80% of voters registered in one party, 20% of voters would be unable to have a say in the Primary process.
All voters should be paying attention to these changes. Today, your preferred party may be the majority; ten years from now, that could change.
Details of the bills can be found at the bottom of this article.
House Joint Resolution 405 begins as follows:
House Joint Resolution
A joint resolution proposing amendments to Section 5 and 6 of Article VI and Section 4 of Article IX and 4 the creation of Section 8 of Article VI of the State Constitution to provide that only qualified electors with the same party affiliation as a candidate for office may vote in the primary election for such office, to provide that candidates for office may not be prohibited from disclosing party affiliation or campaigning or qualifying for office based on party affiliation, and to prohibit exclusively nonpartisan elections.
House Joint Resolution 31 and Senate Joint Resolution 94 are similar but specific to School Boards. They read as follows:
“A joint resolution proposing an amendment to Section 4 3 of Article IX and the creation of a new section in Article XII of the State Constitution to require members of a district school board to be elected in a partisan election.
Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 9 10 That the following amendment to Section 4 of Article IX and 11 the creation of a new section in Article XII of the State 12 Constitution are agreed to and shall be submitted to the electors of this state for approval or rejection at the next general election or at an earlier special election specifically authorized by law for that purpose:”
ARTICLE IX
EDUCATION
SECTION 4.
School districts; school boards. —
(a) Each county shall constitute a school district; 20 provided, two or more contiguous counties, upon vote of the electors of each county pursuant to law, may be combined into one school district. In each school district there shall be a school board composed of five or more members chosen by vote of the electors in a partisan nonpartisan election for appropriately staggered terms of four years, as provided by law.
(b) The school board shall operate, control, and supervise all free public schools within the school district and determine the rate of school district taxes within the limits prescribed herein. Two or more school districts may operate and finance joint educational programs.
ARTICLE XII
SCHEDULE
Partisan election of members of district school boards. —This section and the amendment to Section 4 of Article IX requiring members of a district school board to be elected in a partisan election rather than a nonpartisan election shall take effect upon approval by the electors, except that members of district school boards may not be elected on a partisan basis until the general election held in November 2026. However, partisan primary elections may occur before the general election held on November 3, 2026, for purposes of nominating political party candidates to that office for placement on the 2026 general election ballot.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the following statement be placed on the ballot:
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
ARTICLE IX, SECTION 4
ARTICLE XII
PARTISAN ELECTION OF MEMBERS OF DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARDS. — Proposing amendments to the State Constitution to require members of a district school board to be elected in a partisan election rather than a nonpartisan election and to specify that the amendment only applies to elections held on or after the November 2026 general election. However, partisan primary elections may occur before the 2026 general election for purposes of nominating political party candidates to that office for placement on the 2026 general election ballot.
Beth Tate 