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FLORIDA - Florida voters rejected Amendment 1, falling short of the 60% supermajority needed to make school board elections partisan.
Florida voters have rejected Amendment 1, a proposal that sought to require partisan elections for local school board candidates.
Despite receiving 54.9% of the vote, the measure fell short of the 60% supermajority required to amend the state constitution.
With 99% of precincts reporting, the amendment received 4,505,769 "no" votes, equivalent to 45.1%.
The "Yes" votes stood at 54.9%.
If passed, the amendment would have mandated candidates to disclose their party affiliations and shifted school board elections to a partisan format starting in 2026, reversing a decades-long precedent of nonpartisan school board races in Florida, established by statewide vote in 1998.
The proposal was aimed at increasing transparency and aligning school board elections with broader political trends.
Opponents argued that the amendment would politicize school board races and divert focus from educational issues.