The current law says that whichever party holds the governor’s office can list its candidates first on the ballot in general elections. That hurts an opposing party, U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker said.
He gave Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee two weeks to tell elections supervisors in all 67 counties that the current “ballot scheme” is unconstitutional. She has three weeks to come up with a new plan.
Walker heard testimony from researchers who said the “primacy effect” is real and can give a candidate a statistical advantage as great as 5.4 percentage points. Many voters tend to vote for the first name on the list of candidates, they said.
