THE Franchise
Not standout athletes, like Lionel Messi; not the McDonald’s hamburger joint; not the 2024 movie. Rather, the elective franchise, understood as the “right of voting at public elections,” or “the privilege of qualified voters to cast their ballots for the candidates they favor at elections authorized by law,” so says The Law Dictionary.
Americans fight constantly over the elective franchise. Over centuries, elective franchise holders have denied other folks that same right, while the non-holders (non-propertied white men, Black men, Black and white women) have fought and died for the right to vote. They gave their lives to be recognized as full citizens who enjoy the opportunity to choose their rulers. To vote.
We are their beneficiaries.
Voting is central to our American revolutionary idea that all just governmental power derives from the governed. Not from feudal lords and masters, nor oligarchs, nor from elected government officials, but from the people themselves. With regularity, we choose the people who for a time write the rules that determine outcomes for the rest of us.
We choose these folks, we believe, to represent our best collective interests; they tax us, protect and serve us, and send the lives of our precious loved ones into war.
Whom we choose matters. It’s a big deal.
Too bad we don’t practice what we preach.
Voter turnout is all too often abysmal in the United States, particularly when compared to other democracies. Odd, isn’t it, that we fail to recognize that our not exercising the franchise grants those folks who do vote the opportunity to choose for us, and that not exercising our right to vote endangers our maintaining this right. After all, Florida’s Supervisors of Elections are empowered to remove voters who are considered “inactive,” that is, previously registered voters who did not vote in a certain number of general elections. Humans and their machines make mistakes, so check your status.
Point is: use it or lose it.
Multiple sources show that our voter participation rates are highest when presidential candidates are on the ballot, where turnout rates hover around 60%. In so-called “off year elections,” when presidential candidates do not appear, but the people’s representatives do appear, participation rates hover around 40%.
While Floridians do somewhat better than national averages in presidential years, the closer we get to home the more dismal voter turnout.
At Florida’s gubernatorial level, half of us simply don’t care or don’t understand enough to vote. This despite our learning every day the power Florida’s governor wields, made painfully evident recently by our sitting state ruler having pushed our legislature to propose a property tax constitutional amendment that will upend local life as we know it. If that’s not a reason to turnout, what is?
Funny we don’t seem to connect the dots between our not caring about who rules with how those very same folks rule.
In Duval county, roughly 60-70% of us vote in presidential year elections, 50% vote in congressional-only election year elections, and 25-30+% vote in Duval county mayoral elections. In other words, the closer our government is to us the less we exercise a say in who rules.
Over the past decade, we have held three mayoral and City Council elections: 2015, 2019, 2023. We’re on the verge of a fourth to be held in March 2027.
According to our county supervisor of elections’ archive, mayoral unitary election voter turnout ranged from 37.03% in 2015 to 33.07% in 2023. Special City County elections, for example, the February 2022 special general election for the City Council At-Large, Group 3 representative garnered a measly 20.36% turnout rate.
That At-Large, Group 3 seat is held by City Council’s powerful president, Nick Howland.
That’s a lesson in consequences.
Why such dismal turnout? A cynical public? Widespread distrust? Too busy? Too confused?
Voters cite myriad reasons: difficulty voting (restrictions, few drop boxes, work), my one vote doesn’t matter, I was busy, lines were long, it’s such a hassle, I forgot, I don’t like the candidates, I don’t know enough about the candidates, who cares anyway?
We hear pundits tell us that this or that election is the most consequential election in years. Truth is, all elections—ALL—have consequences. After all, our governor has proven that he can control public university curricula, ICE detention centers, public school library holdings, local government hiring and training practices and that of their nonprofit partners, even the lighting of bridges and the coloring of streets.
That’s power.
Locally, we recently learned that our sitting City Council president not only wields enormous power over our public purse—he appoints members of the Finance Committee—but can launch investigations into the people who lead our supposedly “independent public authorities.”
That’s power.
In case you missed it, we are in election season. Our political parties are holding primaries on August 18, for which mail-in balloting has already begun. The general election, when we elect our next Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Chief Financial Officer, members of Congress, representatives to Florida’s state legislature, our local school board, and county judges, will be held November 3.
Those we elect wield enormous power.
So, so, so many candidates on the ballot, such poor information, it’s no wonder we detach. Before you despair, help is on the way.
Florida Trib recently announced creation of the Florida Election Reporting Partnership, a collaborative consisting of 27 news outlets and academic journalism programs dedicated to better informing Florida’s voters about local elections. Especially school board elections, of which 209 races are currently being held across Florida.
These hard-working folks are making voting easier for us. So, no more excuses.
Tune in, Turn Out.
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