• Getting your name or issue on the ballot:

State law sets out the procedures for running for office at the municipal, county, or state level. If you want to run for a municipal office or a county-wide office, the County Supervisor of Elections will guide you. For state-wide or multi-county districts, you would qualify with the Division of Elections in Tallahassee.

The first step is to file a designation of treasurer and depository (bank). You may not accept or spend money on your campaign before you do this, but, of course, you may talk to people about it at any time. Once you have filed your designation, you are a candidate and should follow Chapter 106 of the election Code which the Supervisor of Elections will give you.

"Qualifying" is the official process of getting your name on the ballot. This occurs approximately six weeks before the first election. The Supervisor of Elections will tell you when the exact dates are, and you must file all your papers and pay your fees by noon of the last qualifying day, or your name will not be put on the ballot. The Supervisor of Elections will give you a packet of all the papers to file, including a financial disclosure form.

The fees to run for office are based on a percentage of the salary of the office. You must pay the fees out of your campaign funds. As an alternative to paying the qualifying fee you may run by the petition method. To do this, you must sign an affidavit saying that you intend to qualify this way. This affidavit cannot be signed until January of the year in which you will be on the ballot. The Supervisor of Elections will give you the petition cards. The signatures must be from voters in your county. The number needed is based on a percentage of the registered voters in your county as of the last general election. The signatures must be collected in time for the Supervisor of Elections to verify them.

If you run as a Democrat or Republican, you will run in a Primary Election if there are others running for the same office in the same party. Only one candidate from each major party will run in the General Election. If you run as a minor party candidate or as an independent, you will only run on the General Election ballot. To run as a minor party candidate or as an Independent, you must get petitions signed in order to get a place on the ballot, and then you must pay the qualifying fee, or sign an affidavit that to pay the fee would be an undue burden.

• Getting an Issue on the Ballot

The requirements for getting an issue on the ballot depend on the type of issue-whether it's a proposed amendment to the state constitution or a city or county charter or a proposed county ordinance. In addition to these types of issues that citizens can petition to place on the ballot, certain governmental bodies can place issues and questions on the ballot.

If citizens want to get an issue on the ballot, they must meet certain requirements for the petition: signatures, fund-raising, and for the exact wording of the issue on the ballot. The Supervisor of Elections will not be able to help you with the wording of your petition. The Supervisor of Elections only approves the form.

As with petitions to qualify a candidate for office, there is a charge of ten cents per name for the Elections Office to verify each signature.

• Poll Watchers

Each candidate and each political party may have one person at each polling place on election day to observe the issuing of ballots to voters and other administrative matters. (They are not allowed, of course, to watch people mark their ballots.) The poll watcher may be any registered voter in the county, except candidates themselves and law enforcement officers are not permitted to be poll watchers. Poll watchers must be designated in writing to the Supervisor of Elections by noon of the second Tuesday preceeding an election.

• Executive Committees

Section 103.091 of the Florida Statutes provides that each political party shall have a state executive committee. These state executive committees may establish the county executives. In Wakulla County, both the Democratic and Republican parties have executive committees. Elections of members to these committees are held in the fall primary elections of the presidential election years.

Generally, the county executive committees consist of a committeewoman and committeeman from each precinct. Larger precincts may each have 2 committeewomen and 2 committeemen. State party rules may provide for filing of vacancies and the appointment of additional members to county executive committees. County executive committees must file a list of their members' names and addresses with the Supervisor of Elections office.

Candidates for county executive committee elections must file with the Supervisor of Elections office during the qualifying period, usually in July, during the presidential election years. Members of executive committees are not considered "public officials" under the Florida's Government-in-the-Sunshine laws, and candidates for executive committee positions do not file campaign finance reports.


For further information on county executive committees, contact the Elections Office or the state or county office of one of the political parties.