The Florida Division of Elections today confirmed that Kendrick Meek's U.S. Senate campaign gathered enough valid petitions to be placed on the 2010 ballot, officially making Kendrick the first statewide candidate in Florida history to qualify for the ballot by petition. A historic and yearlong grassroots mobilizing effort wrapped up on March 29 as Kendrick's campaign submitted over 140,000 petitions to Supervisor of Elections offices throughout Florida.
Florida law allows candidates for office to qualify for the ballot in one of two ways. Candidates can pay a roughly $10,000 filing fee or collect 112,476 valid petitions from registered Florida voters, regardless of party affiliation or non-affiliation. As of April 8, 2010, the Division of Elections has verified that at least 115,557 of those petitions were validly completed by Floridians, more than enough to place Kendrick on the ballot. You can view the Division of Elections' official count here (http://election.dos.state.fl.us/candidate/CanPetSig.asp?account=50487).
"We made history today and our successful petition drive is the first victory before the final victory in November. Over 145,000 Floridians participated in our petition effort by signing their name on the dotted line to support this campaign and our vision for Florida," said Kendrick Meek, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. "Floridians don't want more of the same leaders who put politics ahead of people, they want hands on, hardworking leaders who will focus on strengthening our economy and bringing jobs to Floridians. That's what our campaign is about."
Between April 2009 and March 2010, Kendrick, his campaign and volunteers from across Florida worked to get signatures from Floridians in every county of the state.
Posted By: Kendrick Meek
Thursday, April 8th 2010 at 4:41PM
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