Florida County Republican Registrations Report — February 2024

Executive Summary

• The following items need to be implemented.

• • Moratorium on the building of rental housing unless county-wide homeownership rates are greater than 85%.
  • Change Florida election laws so the winner of a primary election is only granted the office with a corresponding win in the general election.

• In reference to the immediate prior bullet points, please undertake efforts to grow the Republican base through building less rental housing and eliminating the anti-conservative Republican measure of allowing elections to be decided in open (universal) primaries held in August.
• Republican registrations relative to Democrat registrations in Florida increased by 36,318 in February and now stands at an 854,070 Republican registration advantage.

Florida Voter Registrations

Note: the registrations numbers in this writing refer to active registrations, a subset of total registrations.

Florida Republicans continue the trend of making relative gains in active voter registrations as Republican registrations relative to Democrat registrations increased by 48,397 registrations in February and by 548,120 registrations since the book closing for the 2022 general election. Florida Republicans now have an 854,070 relative registrations advantage over the Democrats. Republican registrations were 38.79% of total registrations and Republicans now enjoy a 6.35% of total registrations advantage over the Democrats (see tables).

The Democrats gained 4,725 registrations in February, lost 613,507 registrations since the 2022 book closing, and 945,432 registrations since the 2020 election. The Republican registrations increased by 41,043 in February, and the number of registrations which are neither Republican nor Democrat increased by 11,524 registrations in February (see chart).

Note: Please make plans to vote in the Florida non-presidential primary election in August. These primary elections are deadly for conservative Republicans. In the name of fairness, the system should be changed so multi-candidate, single party elections are decided at the general election and not at the primary election! The only current option is for conservative Republicans is to vote in the August primary!

Republicans Lose the Phrasing and Branding Battle

The Republican opposition works to proportionately grow those demographics that tend to vote for them. One way the opposition accomplishes this is by creating phrasing, or branding, favorable to the opposition and unfavorable to Republicans, and to have this phrasing, or branding, universally adopted.

The greatest political success the opposition has had is the burden placed on the building of owner-occupied housing. The burden ultimately causes greater amounts of rental housing to be built. Renters, as a group, are much less Republican than are homeowners, so inhibiting the building of owner-occupied housing politically favors the opposition.

Speaking for baby-boomers, most of us adopted the idea broached in the 1960’s era book The Population Bomb that humans were going to over-populate the world unless we had smaller families. We dutifully had our two children, unless they were of the same sex, when then we might have had a third.

We baby-boomers are environmentally conscious. The combination of smaller families coupled with concern for the environment fits right in with the push to limit real estate development. This may have somehow worked out nicely but for the opening of our borders by the opposition allowing our population to explode. The increase in population, caused by the opening of our borders, coupled with the restrictions placed on the building of owner-occupied housing, has created political nirvana for the opposition.

Urban is a word that is generally held in disdain. Capitalizing on this disdain, the opposition brands any area of Florida served by municipal water and/or sewer as being urban. Therefore, any development of undeveloped property is branded as urban sprawl. Any potential development immediately garners opposition owing to the opposition’s branding.

According to Florida law, I live in an “urban” area of Indian River County. If I were to describe Indian River County, urban would never be a descriptor! Where I live could be described as suburban, but in my mind, to be suburban requires there to be an associated urban area. To qualify as being urban should require the urban area to at least have a skyline. When Microsoft AI was queried as to which Florida cities have a skyline, the reply mentioned only Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando.

Florida Republicans have super-majorities in the legislature and a Republican governor. Why have they allowed “urban” to be used throughout our development definitions (reference Florida Statutes 163.3164)? Florida statute 163.3164 reads like a United Nations environmental wacko document. For example, here is the law’s definition of urban sprawl: “Urban sprawl means a development pattern characterized by low density, automobile-dependent development with either a single use or multiple uses that are not functionally related, requiring the extension of public facilities and services in an inefficient manner, and failing to provide a clear separation between urban and rural uses.”

Say what? How does this definition of urban differ from suburban? I spent the first 14 years of my life living in a suburb. I recall it as being great! What is a suburban-like area not tied to an urban area called, because that is where I live now, and it is great, and it is certainly not urban! Urban is written into law because Democrats strategies, unlike Republican strategies, are not limited to campaigns!

Vote in the Primary, or Likely Disenfranchise Your Vote for County Commissioner

When there are only candidates from one party in a partisan election, there is no general election! The office will be granted to the winner of the August primary! When a voter chooses to only vote in the general election, the voter will be disenfranchised! For example, where I reside, in both 2020 and 2022 all five Indian River County commissioner races were decided in the August primary!

Why is this a problem? The most significant election determinant is the underlying political orientation of an electorate, which is a function of demographics. Democrats, with their allies, which includes a significant number of hopefully unwitting Republicans, work tirelessly on proportionately growing the Democrat demographics.

The Democrat have had much demographic related success by the implementation of “affordable housing” policies!  “Affordable housing” efforts ultimately results in the building of excessive amounts of rental housing, whose habitants are more likely Democrat voters than are homeowners. Homeownership is a common good, so the building of excessive amounts of rental housing is bad for those forced into a lifetime of rentership, bad for America and bad for Republicans!

Housing policies are generally established at local levels of government so local governments mostly control the level of “affordable housing” efforts.

Florida law requires normally closed primaries (closed primaries allow only registered voters of a particular party to vote in the primary of the particular party) to become open primaries (all registered voters may vote in an open primary) if there is only one party with candidates in the primary. The winners of these open primaries (also referred to as universal primaries) are granted the office, so those voters only voting in the general election are disenfranchised.

The unionized opposition of the Republicans has a great advantage in open primaries.
The unions know who their members are so they can easily assist their members and monitor, for instance, whether a member has mailed their mail-in ballot. They also may be highly motivated voters owing to the election outcome may determine their wages, retirement benefits, and length of service to receive those benefits.

In democratic republics, the ideal is to have the greatest number of voters choosing the office holder. Special interests are overrepresented in primaries. Office holders should be chosen at the general election!

One solution to the primary election problem is to get more Republicans to vote in the primary. This is a great project for Republican Executive Committees (RECs are the county based Republican organizations in Florida). A get-out-the primary vote effort would make Republicans aware of the situation. It would also make sure that contact information would be up to date for the general election. Hopefully this effort would allow the election of Republicans that would promote policies that would lead to a better America by shrinking the rentership rate, which is terribly damaging to society and especially damaging to the people stuck in perpetual rentership!

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