Re: Party Endorsements - Univ Primary

So it would seem. However, Florida has a rule creating a special designation for races. This designation is Universal Primary Contest. The Universal Primary rule Florida came up with requires races that will be decided in the primary race to appear on all party’s ballots: example is a state senate race that has only democrat candidates qualify. This race will be decided in the primary election, so Florida requires this race to appear on the ballot of all parties and nonpartisan voters. As such, the race is coded as NP, but the candidates will have the endorsement of the DEM party so the voters will understand that the candidates are democrats. THEN, for uniformity of ballots, all other candidates must have a party endorsement so as not to confuse the voter. If there are no universal primary races in the county, then there will not be any candidate endorsements on the primary ballot.

Note, I am not debating the wisdom of this rule, just explaining how it works.

Mark Earley

850 422-2100 - office/fax

850 322-3226 - cell

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of Don Bizmaier
Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 12:40 PM
To: support@dieboldes.com
Subject: Re: Party Endorsements - Univ Primary

Mark: In most jurisdictions The candidate is only endorsed by party in the general as you have stated. It seems it would not serve any purpose to endorse a candidate when they are already on a party ballot in the primary.

Don

Donald W. Biszmaier
Support Services Specialist
Diebold Election Systems, Inc.
7717 Greenwood Rd.
Louisville, Ky. 40258
Office 502-244-8645
Cell 502-314-6936
Fax 502-254-7835

----- Original Message -----

From: Mark S Earley

To: support@dieboldes.com

Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 2:24 PM

Subject: RE: Party Endorsements - Univ Primary

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-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of Ken Clark
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 12:40 PM
To: support@dieboldes.com
Subject: RE: Party Endorsements - Univ Primary

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-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com] On Behalf Of Mark Earley
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 8:18 AM
To: Support
Subject: Party Endorsements - Univ Primary

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