Thursday, November 09, 2006
A Few More Election Notes
Yesterday I mentioned a proposed amendent to the state constitution that would require at least 60 percent of voters to vote yes for future amendments to pass. No other state has such a rule in place, and Florida already has the strictest requirements for even putting a proposed amendment on the ballot. For example, 600,000 signatures are required, which is even more than California, which has more than double the population. Well, guess what? That amendment passed -- with 58 percent of the vote. That means it didn't even meet its own standard, yet it becomes law.
Four of the other five proposed amendments reached the magic 60 percent mark. Two pertained to property taxes: one giving more relief for disabled veterans and another allowing local governments to increase the homestead exemption for low-income seniors passed with 78 and 76 percent of the vote, respectively.
Another prohibits the use of eminent domain to transfer property to private developers (remember that Supreme Court ruling?) unless an exemption is approved by three-fifths (hey, that's 60 percent!) of both houses of the legislature. That got 69 percent of the vote. And 60 percent voted to require the state to use at least 15 percent of the state's settlement with the tobacco companies for anti-smoking programs directed toward children.
Even the remaining amendment -- a very complicated proposal (at least to me) about how the state spends certain types of revenue -- got 59 percent of the vote, more than the "Amendment Amendment."
A few other notes of possible interest:
- Remember a while back I mentioned our Secretary of Agriculture, Charles Bronson? He was re-elected in a landslide. I'm sure the name doesn't hurt.
- I know you remember Mark Foley. His replacement in the election, Joe Negron did much better than expected considering the obstacles he faced, but not well enough to win. Negron received 47.6 percent of the vote, compared to 49.6 percent to Tim Mahoney. There also was an unaffiliated candidate, Emmie Ross, who received the remaining 2.8 percent. That may sound small, but she received 6473 votes -- almost 2000 more than the difference between the two major-party candidates.
- Also last night I wrote about a neighboring district where one could vote for Beer for Circuit Court Judge -- not another amendment, but an actual judicial candidate named Jerry Beer, who was running against David French. It took until Wednesday to determine that he lost what might be called the "French-Beer Campaign." French beer...now that sounds nasty.
