A Little History About Ranked Choice Voting in Florida

In 2007, voters in the city of Sarasota approved ranked choice voting for their local elections with a 75% majority. The next step was for the Florida secretary of state to certify the software used to count votes in the new system. But they refused to do so, requiring the city to seek a judgment to verify that what 75% of voters said they wanted is allowed by the Florida Constitution.
 
The cities of Clearwater and Gainesville were also taking steps to implement Ranked Choice Voting as it would have saved them about $1,000,000 per election cycle.
 
However, that ruling never came. Instead in 2022 Governor Ron DeSantis inserted a paragraph into SB-524 prohibiting Rank Choice Voting in Florida. During these 15 years, Rank My Vote Florida hired a lobbyist to get the Sarasota vote approved, but with that one paragraph, we had to adapt to a new strategy. 

We now need to increase our membership to have the strength to do one of two things. We can petition the state legislature to repeal that subsection of the bill, or we can petition to have it put on the ballot for a future election. The political climate after the 2024 election will decide our path.