Less voters in Florida’s District 25 congressional race

As a Cuban-born Miamian, the District 25 congressional race is of special interest. It’s the district deserted by Mario Diaz-Balart when brother Lincoln declared he would be retiring earlier this year. Mario quickly jumped over to the other Diaz-Balart’s District 21 – a more republican, safer place to run in. For those who forget quickly, Joe Garcia came within 6 percentage points of overtaking Mario in 2008 for the District 25 seat. Mario did not seem to want any part of Garcia this time around. He quickly quit his seat and set his sights on big brother’s.

Other than who wins in November, which I predict will be a slugfest between Garcia and David Rivera, what I found interesting are the final numbers (before the primary) that were just posted by the Florida secretary of state. By numbers, of course, I mean the registered voters in 25.

There are 10,528 fewer registered voters in 2010 than there were in 2008. Of those there are 130,575 registered democrats (compare that to 134,549 in 2008); 132,905 registered republican (as compared to 137,913 in 2008); and 97,863 registered but without a party affiliation (the 2008 number was 99,196).

With 10,000 less voters in the district, I wonder if the question to ask is if there are less voter-eligible citizens in District 25, or can it be that there are less people interested in voting as time goes by…

Alvaro F. Fernandez