There is nothing prohibiting putting the party endorsement on the
ballot, and that has been my advice to the counties, “Just use the endorsement
for each candidate in each race”. Several counties have asked if they could
avoid this and I figured I would check to see if I was missing something.
Typically, the counties in Florida omit the endorsement label in Primary elections,
and put it in only in General elections. Thanks for the clarification. Mark
Earley 850 422-2100 - office/fax 850 322-3226 - cell -----Original
Message----- In a word, no, if I
follow you correctly. I think I am reading
something between the lines here that I don’t entirely follow though. Is it undesirable to put the party
affiliation beside the candidate on all ballots, independent of the UPR, and if
so why? Lots of jurisdictions just
put the party affiliation with the candidates as a matter of course. Put the affiliation on all
ballots: problem solved. Ken -----Original
Message----- Florida has a new rule/law that states that a universal
primary race (UPR) must have party endorsements next to the candidates’ names.
For uniformity of ballots, any other race appearing on a ballot that has a UPR
must also have party endorsements next to the candidates’ names. A UPR is a partisan race with qualified candidates
from only one party. Since the other party does not have candidates the race
will be decided in the primary election, not the general election, so it must
be placed on ballots as if it were a nonpartisan race to allow all voters to
vote on it. Ballot styles without the UPR do not require the
party endorsements on the races. However, if a race appears on a ballot style
with a UPR, but also appears on styles without a UPR, the endorsements carry
over. This has the effect of forcing all races to have the party endorsements
next to the candidates’ names across all ballot styles. Is there a way around
this? Mark
Earley 850 422-2100 -
office/fax 850 322-3226 - cell |