On February 26, the Florida Secretary of State released new data on how many registered voters there are in each party. Compared to October 2014, the percentage of Republicans has risen from 34.97% to 35.45%. The Democratic percentage has declined from 38.79% to 37.89%. The percentage of voters registered in qualified minor parties has dropped from 2.95% to 2.79%. The number of independent voters has risen from 23.29% to 23.87%.
Here is a link to the new data.
Here is a link to the October 2014 data, which had been the most recent report that includes all qualified parties, until today’s data was released.
Most of the changes are recent in anticipation of the primaries.
From the Oct 2014 pre-general report to the Nov 2015 report, Republicans decreased -0.4%. In the 2-1/2 months since then, the increase was 2.7%, with about 60% coming in the last month.
Party 13.5 mo 2.5 mo
Rep -0.2% +2.7%
Dem -2.4% +1.2%
Minor -2.1% -1.9%
NPA +3.9% -0.3%
So the minor parties have been drifting lower since 2014, with a sharper recent decrease, likely due to persons registered as “Independent” and “Independence” realizing that they are not independent. Similarly, the steady gain in independents was halted in the last three months as independents realized they could not vote in the general election.
Florida’s party qualification scheme illustrates that there is no reason to maintain a high recognition threshold, so long as there is some indication of organized party activity.
Eliminate write-in party affiliation, and require a petition with 100 voters. If the petition is successful, change the affiliation of the voters. So long as the registration is above 100, and there is minimal activity (filing of finance and organization reports, and perhaps a biennial state convention, should be sufficient).