Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 30, 2013

First of two parts. Florida is the home of razor-thin election victories. From George W. Bush’s controversial 537-vote victory over Al Gore to Barack Obama’s .9 percent margin over Mitt Romney, the whole nation watches Florida. Florida’s close elections are an artifact of its partisan coalitions. These coalitions are undergoing some profound changes that will […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 26, 2013

Over the past several decades, there has been a growing debate about the gender gap and the role, if any, that it plays in elections. Scholars generally agree that women are more likely to support Democratic candidates, while males lean Republican in their voter preferences. Although women are more likely to vote Democrat than males, […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 25, 2013

Last of nine parts. In the first eight articles in this series I discussed the long and shameful legacy of voter discrimination in Florida. Neither Democrats nor Republicans should have any pride in how they have treated the black electorate in the past 200 years. Democrats, who politically controlled Florida for about 140 of the […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 24, 2013

Eighth in a series. Republicans and blacks dominated politics in Florida for about 20 years immediately after the Civil War. The end of Reconstruction also brought an end to Republican dominance for the next 115 years. Even though the Democrats drew the election district lines in 1992, Republicans took control of the Florida Senate in […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 22, 2013

Sixth in a series. The 2000 presidential election in Florida exposed numerous problems with the election process, and many of those problems were disproportionately likely to affect black voters. As the nation waited for the Florida election results to see who would be the next president of the United States, complaints emerged about antiquated voting […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 19, 2013

Fifth in a series The civil rights movement and the passage of federal laws such as the Voting Rights Act ended the major hurdles to black voting in Florida and the South. Black voter registration soared and, with the passage of time, hundreds of blacks in Florida would be elected to political office. The election […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 18, 2013

Fourth in a series. There is universal agreement among the scholars of Southern politics that the literacy test was the primary obstacle confronting blacks who desired to vote. Supposedly, all voters, black and white, had to pass a literacy test before earning the right to vote. Although equally applied to blacks and whites in theory, […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 17, 2013

Third of six parts. Florida was the first state in the nation to adopt a poll tax. In 1889 the Legislature adopted a $2 annual poll tax as a requirement for voting. On the surface, there was nothing discriminatory about the tax. Both whites and blacks had to pay it. In reality, the legislators knew […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 16, 2013

Second of six parts. In the first part of this series, I wrote that the 15th Amendment said that Southern states could not deny the right to vote based on race, but that they used a variety of tactics to keep blacks from voting anyway. One of the major barriers to black voting in Florida […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 15, 2013

First of a six-part series about black voting in Florida. Blacks comprised almost half of Florida’s population at the end of the Civil War. Like other Southern states, most blacks in Florida were slaves and none had the right to vote. As a condition for rejoining the Union, Florida and the rest of the Confederate […]

Tag: Darryl Paulson

Darryl Paulson: Florida’s Changing Partisan Coalitions: The Democrats

Darryl Paulson: The gender gap in Florida: Fact or fiction?

Darryl Paulson: Black voter discrimination: What lies ahead?

Darryl Paulson: Black voter discrimination in Florida: The Republican Party

Darryl Paulson: Voter Discrimination from the 2000 presidential election to the present

Darryl Paulson: Black voter discrimination in Florida: Vote dilution

Darryl Paulson: Black Voter Discrimination: The Literacy Test and Grandfather Clause

Darryl Paulson: Black voter discrimination in Florida: The poll tax

Darryl Paulson: Black voter discrimination in Florida: The white primary

Darryl Paulson: Black Voter Discrimination in Florida: Civil War to Reconstruction