Editor’s Note: The following story by Jeffrey Rembert was posted by FORWARD Florida on its website under Legislative on August 11, 2016.
Late-night comedians have spent the better part of the past decade and a half ribbing the Sunshine State’s electoral mishaps and for good reason. Even our well-heeled counties have found ways to offer comedic fodder with voters misunderstanding the mechanics of voting and creating embarrassing delays in Election Day vote tabulation. But comedy aside, based on the numbers and the state’s recent refusal to be labeled electorally either red or blue, Florida is the most important state in the upcoming presidential election.
Of the top seven most populous states, all but two have consistently given their electoral votes to the same party, election after election, since 2000. And of these behemoths of population and electoral votes, Florida and Ohio are the only states to accurately select the past four winners. California and Texas? Locks respectively in the Democrat and Republican columns. New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania? Though Pennsylvania claims diversity in its voting ranks, all three states have gone Democrat since 2000.
Florida and Ohio remain electoral powerhouses of no certain allegiance but one is more so than the other. Read more