Scott Powers
Amendment 1, the initiative that sought to restrict commerce of solar energy, did not cross the 60 percent approval threshold in any of Florida’s 20 most populous counties.
It came close in a couple, getting 59.6 percent in Duval and 56.2 percent in Miami-Dade. But Amendment 2 got clobbered in Tampa Bay, Orlando, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Sarasota, and West Palm Beach.
The proposal needed 60 percent approval statewide, but didn’t even get majority approvals in the high-voter population Pinellas, Hillsborough, Orange, Seminole, Alachua, Leon, Sarasota, and Palm Beach counties, and a dozen other of Florida’s 67 counties.
Approval in any individual county doesn’t matter, so long as the overall state electorate gives it 60 percent approval. But Amendment 1 could not put put together a map of areas of support to overcome the opposition of the urban areas.
There were a few areas of modest support.
In Central Florida, 60.4 percent of Osceola County voters said yes. And in North Florida 60.1 percent of Clay County voters approved. After that, only Sumter County, home to The Villages retirement community, Okaloosa County, and a handful of low-population Panhandle counties saw 60 percent or more of their voters say yes to Amendment 1.
Hamilton County in the Panhandle showed the most support, with 66.9 percent approval, followed by Sumter with 65.5 percent.
At the other end, two medium-sized counties with distinctly different demographics, Alachua and Sarasota, gave the least amount of support. Just 36.7 percent of Alachua voters approved of Amendment 1, and just 38 percent of Sarasota voters said yes.
