“Power to the people” has never been put to better use than in two of the constitutional amendments on Florida’s November ballot. They deserve “Yes” from every voter.
Amendment 2 raises Florida’s minimum wage, presently $8.56 per hour, to $10 next September and by a dollar more each year until reaching $15 in 2026. From there it would be adjusted annually according to the consumer price index.
Amendment 3 does away with political party primaries for governor, Cabinet and the Legislature. It replaces them with primary elections open to every candidate and to every voter, regardless of party. The top two winners in each race would face off in the general election. That allows many more people to have their say in who governs Florida.
The present two-party system is more of an illusion than a reality in Florida. The closed-primary system shuts out close to 4 million Florida voters who are neither Democrats nor Republicans. It also allows a candidate to advance from a party’s scrum with little more than 20% of the party’s votes. It also leads to lopsided results. While statewide races for governor and U.S. Senate are closely fought, few of those for the Florida House and Senate are.
Amendment 3 aims to rectify all that.
“This may be the most important issue on the ballot in any state other than the presidential election because all across the country, everyone is looking,” Miami attorney Gene Stearns told the Miami Herald. Stearns has spearheaded the citizen measure for the last five years, with $6 million in funding from Miami businessman Mike Fernandez.
“If Florida allows nonpartisan elections, everyone else will follow,” he said. “The whole objective is to reduce the toxicity of our political process.”
Polling earlier this year showed both amendments to be popular reforms, but the usual array of special interests don’t like them, which means the Legislature doesn’t, either. Neither do the leaders of the two major political parties. And neither did the poor-performing Constitution Revision Commission in 2018.
However, Florida is one of 24 states that allow measures to make the ballot by petition, whether politicians or party bosses like them or not.
Vote “Yes” on Amendment 2
Florida’s present minimum wage — $8.56 an hour — was put in place by a successful initiative campaign in 2004, when it won 71 percent of the vote. It started out at $6.15 per hour, indexed to inflation. That was a dollar higher at the time than the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25, not indexed for inflation, since 2009.
Florida’s present minimum wage yields $17,800 a year for a full-time worker, which doesn’t come close to a living wage for a family of four. A United Way study last year estimated such a family would need more than $55,000 a year just for basic expenses, three times more. Those who object to raising the wage should try living on so little, even for a short while.
Orlando trial attorney John Morgan led the effort to get Amendment 2 on the ballot. As with his 2016 effort to legalize the use of medical marijuana, Morgan largely funded the petition drive himself.
“Now the sprint to reverse decades of inequality really starts and let me tell you, this is going to be a tough challenge,” Morgan told Politico after securing enough voter signatures to reach the ballot. “I’m confident because Floridians are compassionate and know that giving every worker a fair wage means not just lifting up those who would directly benefit, but lifting up our broader economy when hardworking folks have more money to spend.”
The Florida Chamber of Commerce is the leading opponent to Amendment 2. It claims that the increase would raise prices, cost jobs and isn’t necessary. It maintains that all but 2 percent of Florida workers actually earn more.
Something about that equation doesn’t make sense. If the increase applies to such a relative few, how could it have such a major negative impact on the entire economy?
In 2015, Integrity Florida, a non-profit watchdog, issued a report effectively debunking the job-loss objection. The previous year, the study found, 25 states had raised their minimum wages and all but one, West Virginia, experienced job growth, not losses. Business groups assailed the study.
The heart of the issue, it seems to us, is less about economics than morality. It simply isn’t right that some people earn less than they need to live no matter how hard they work. Bear in mind that it’s often the lowest-paid people who are deemed essential in the face of the coronavirus.
Vote “Yes” on Amendment 3
The Republican and Democratic parties, who agree on almost nothing else, begged the Florida Supreme Court to keep Amendment 3 off the ballot. It threatens their shared monopoly on Florida’s major public offices.
The Democrats objected that it would be a major upheaval to a primary system that has been in effect since 1913. That is true. It is also necessary. The Republicans wept through crocodile tears that it would disadvantage independent, minority party and write-in candidates, ignoring the fact that none ever come within a mile of winning.
Most Florida voting districts are so non-competitive that only one or the other of the major parties’ votes matter. In 2018, with all 120 House seats on the ballot, Republicans won 46 and Democrats nine by blowout margins of more than 10 percent.
In 10 of those, only one of the major parties had a candidate; the only opposition came from independents, write-ins, Libertarians and a Green candidate, whose votes were negligible. They accomplished nothing by filing except to close the major party primaries, which effectively determined who the legislators would be.
In 1998, the Constitution Revision Commission sought to fix that problem — and the voters agreed — by providing for primaries open to all voters when there will be no opposition in November. But the Department of State ruled that even write-in candidates qualify as opposition, though their names appear nowhere on the ballot. So now, write-in ringers are recruited to keep the primaries closed. Two years ago, five House primaries were closed that way, while four Republicans and 17 Democrats ran unopposed.
This year, the presidential race has generated more local competition. Only two Senate seats and 13 in the House are going entirely unopposed. But with the primaries over, many of other races on the November ballot are essentially over. And when candidates who win their primaries are assured of election, they don’t have to concern themselves about the other party’s voters. That breeds extremism, drives both parties further apart and makes governing more difficult.
In Florida, as in most states, the primary system is a relic of when nearly all voters were either Republicans or Democrats. But today, close to 30 percent of Florida’s 14 million voters are registered as No Party Affiliation or as members of a minor political party. And they are the fastest-growing bloc of registered voters.
It is possible, as Amendment 3 opponents argue, that on the November ballot, both winners of a top-two primary will be from the same party. But in that event, they would have had to appeal to all voters. And to stand any chance of re-election, they would have to retain such appeal.
Meanwhile, all those other voters will be given a say that often eludes them now.
People over Profits, a liberal Florida public interest nonprofit, argues that Black candidates would have a harder time getting elected if Republicans and no-party voters are allowed to vote in what are now majority-Black Democratic primaries. That is a legitimate concern, but one that party leaders could overcome by discouraging multiple candidacies. More likely, fewer incumbents would run unopposed. More competition is hardly a bad thing.
Constitutional amendments need 60 percent support from those voting to be approved, which makes apathy the major problem for Amendments 2 and 3. We strongly urge everyone to vote for both.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Dan Sweeney, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.
