United States presidential election, 2004, in Florida

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Elections in Florida

gubernatorial elections: 2006
special elections: n/a
other elections: 2004 presidential election in FL 2006 United States Senate election Jacksonville mayoral election, 2007

Florida was under the national spotlight prior the 2004 Presidential election, being the swing state with the largest number of electoral votes (27), and with the memory of the controversy surrounding the 2000 Florida vote still fresh in the minds of voters. Polls throughout the campaign indicated that Florida was too close to call, prompting concerns about a repeat of the 2000 fiasco. However, the high popularity of George W. Bush's brother, Republican Governor Jeb Bush, contributed to a relatively comfortable victory for Bush, by a margin of 5% over his Democratic rival, John Kerry.

While the South Florida metropolitan area mostly voted for Kerry, the other parts of the states mainly supported Bush, being culturally closer to the rest of the southern United States than to Miami, home to large Hispanic and Jewish populations, as well as retirees and transplants from the largely liberal Northeastern United States.

Bush's margin of victory in several counties topped 70%, particularly in the Florida Panhandle. Bush also won a significant number of heavily populated and fast-growing areas including the Jacksonville area, the entire Tampa Bay area, Southwest Florida, suburban Orlando, the Space Coast, Ocala, and so forth.

Presidential Candidate	Running Mate	Party	Electoral Vote (EV)	Popular Vote (PV)		While Kerry won the Miami metropolitan area, Bush carried most of the rest of the state.
George W. Bush of Texas	Richard Cheney of Wyoming	Republican	27	3,964,522	52.10%
John Kerry of Massachusetts	John Edwards of North Carolina	Democrat	0	3,583,544	47.09%
Ralph Nader of Connecticut	Peter Miguel Camejo of California	Independent, Reform	0	32,971	0.43%
Others	-	-	0	28,773	0.38%
Other elections: 2000, 2004, 2008

See main article: U.S. presidential election, 2004.

[edit] Controversies

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A chart comparing the final exit poll in Florida with the vote count

During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, numerous allegations of irregularities were made concerning the voting process in Florida. These allegations included missing and uncounted votes, machine malfunction, and a lack of correlation between the vote count and exit polling. Additionally, 58,000 absentee postal vote forms were lost in Broward County; Broward County is heavily Democrat, and Democratic Party officials accused the Republican state government of trying to "steal the election".

Holmes County was pointed to an example of unusual voting patterns: three-quarters of registered voters in Holmes County are Democrats; however, Republican George W. Bush defeated Democrat John Kerry in Holmes County by a large margin (6,410 to 1,810). It was alleged that this phenomenon was correlated to the use of optical scanning machines. [1]

In many counties, more votes were registered than there were voters in the county, adding up to a total of 268,169 overvotes. [2] Bush supporters responded by suggesting that even with 100% support for Kerry, the combined total of all overvotes and missing votes could not have overcome Bush's margin of victory in the state, which was 380,978 votes.

[edit] Results by county

County	John F. Kerry		George W. Bush		Others
Alachua	56.1%	62,504	42.9%	47,762	1.0%	1,062
Baker	21.9%	2,180	77.7%	7,738	0.4%	37
Bay	28.1%	21,068	71.2%	53,404	0.7%	552
Bradford	29.9%	3,244	69.6%	7,557	0.5%	54
Brevard	41.6%	110,309'	57.7%	153,068	0.8%	2,085
Broward	64.2%	453,873	34.6%	244,674	1.2%	8,325
Calhoun	35.5%	2,116	63.4%	3,782	1.1%	65
Charlotte	42.9%	34,256	55.7%	44,428	1.4%	1,102
Citrus	42.1%	29,277	56.9%	39,500	1.0%	690
Clay	23.3%	18,971	76.2%	62,078	0.5%	446
Collier	34.1%	43,892	65.0%	83,631	0.9%	1,160
Columbia	32.1%	8,031	67.1%	16,758	0.8%	202
DeSoto	41.1%	3,913	58.1%	5,524	0.8%	73
Dixie	30.4%	1,960	68.8%	4,434	0.7%	48
Duval	41.6%	158,610	57.8%	220,190	0.6%	2,261
Escambia	33.7%	48,329	65.3%	93,566	1.0%	1,383
Flagler	48.3%	18,578	51.0%	19,633	0.7%	269
Franklin	40.5%	2,401	58.5%	3,472	1.0%	58
Gadsden	69.7%	14,629	29.8%	6,253	0.5%	102
Gilchrist	28.8%	2,017	70.4%	4,936	0.9%	62
Glades	41.0%	1,718	58.3%	2,443	0.6%	27
Gulf	33.1%	2,407	66.0%	4,805	0.9%	65
Hamilton	44.5%	2,260	55.0%	2,792	0.5%	27
Hardee	29.6%	2,149	69.7%	5,049	0.7%	51
Hendry	40.5%	3,960	58.9%	5,757	0.6%	58
Hernando	46.2%	37,187	52.9%	42,635	0.9%	725
Highlands	37.0%	15,347	62.4%	25,878	0.7%	271
Hillsborough	46.2%	214,132	53.0%	245,576	0.8%	3,514
Holmes	21.8%	1,810	77.3%	6,412	0.9%	78
Indian River	39.0%	23,956	60.1%	36,938	0.8%	520
Jackson	38.1%	7,555	61.2%	12,122	0.7%	130
Jefferson	55.3%	4,135	44.1%	3,298	0.6%	45
Lafayette	25.4%	845	74.0%	2,460	0.6%	20
Lake	38.9%	48,221	60.0%	74,389	1.1%	1,340
Leon	61.5%	83,873	37.8%	51,615	0.7%	891
Lee	39.0%	93,860	59.9%	144,176	1.1%	2,631
Levy	36.5%	6,074	62.5%	10,410	1.0%	168
Liberty	35.4%	1,070	63.8%	1,927	0.8%	24
Madison	48.8%	4,050	50.5%	4,191	0.8%	63
Manatee	42.7%	61,262	56.6%	81,318	0.7%	1,041
Marion	41.0%	57,271	58.2%	81,283	0.8%	1,123
Martin	41.7%	30,208	57.1%	41,362	1.2%	883
Miami-Dade	52.9%	409,732	46.6%	361,095	0.5%	3,899
Monroe	49.7%	19,654	49.2%	19,467	1.0%	414
Nassau	26.2%	8,573	72.6%	23,783	1.2%	387
Okaloosa	21.6%	19,368	77.6%	69,693	0.8%	695
Oskeechobee	42.3%	5,153	57.2%	6,978	0.5%	59
Orange	49.8%	193,354	49.6%	192,539	0.6%	2,151
Osceola	47.0%	38,633	52.5%	43,117	0.6%	454
Palm Beach	60.4%	328,687	39.1%	212,688	0.6%	3,247
Pasco	44.4%	84,749	54.1%	103,230	1.5%	2,937
Pinellas	49.5%	225,460	49.6%	225,686	0.9%	4,211
Polk	40.8%	86,009	58.6%	123,559	0.6%	1,262
Putnam	40.1%	12,412	59.1%	18,311	0.8%	250
Saint Johns	30.6%	26,399	68.6%	59,196	0.8%	695
Saint Lucie	51.8%	51,835	47.6%	47,592	0.6%	636
Santa Rosa	21.8%	14,659	77.3%	52,059	0.9%	589
Sarasota	45.2%	88,442	53.5%	104,692	1.3%	2,518
Seminole	41.3%	76,971	58.1%	108,172	0.6%	1,052
Sumter	36.4%	11,584	62.2%	19,800	1.4%	458
Suwanee	28.6%	4,522	70.6%	11,153	0.8%	127
Taylor	35.5%	3,049	63.7%	5,467	0.8%	65
Union	26.8%	1,251	72.6%	3,396	0.6%	28
Volusia	50.5%	115,519	48.9%	111,924	0.7%	1,496
Wakulla	41.6%	4,896	57.6%	6,777	0.8%	90
Walton	25.9%	6,213	73.2%	17,555	0.9%	208
Washington	28.1%	2,912	71.1%	7,369	0.8%	85