(CNN) – There's no doubt Gov. Charlie Crist has high name recognition in Florida, but voters there may still may have a problem finding his name on the ballot come November.
That's because Crist, running as an independent candidate for Senate, will appear in the ninth position out of 10 candidates on the ballot, appearing between other party-less hopefuls Rick Tyler and Lewis Jerome Armstrong, according to the Florida Secretary of State's office.
That's because Florida law mandates the two major parties appear first followed by minor-party candidates. Candidates, like Crist, who are not running under the banner of any particular party, appear last. Of the candidates without a party, the order is determined by when the candidate filed. Crist was running as a Republican until late last spring and so was among the last candidates to file as an independent.
"It's an issue, obviously," Crist told reporters Wednesday.
Of course, the state has a rocky history with ballots – most recently in 2000 when a confusing set up appeared to cause thousands of Floridians to accidentally cast their vote for libertarian candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Democrat Al Gore.
Earlier this year Crist dropped his bid for the GOP Senate nomination. Crist – who is used to appearing on top of the ballots – said the new configuration means his campaign has the burden of educating voters where they can find his name.
"We're just going to have to have an education process to make sure people know it's not the normal course of affairs," he said.
A Reuters-Ipsos poll out Thursday showed indicates Crist 14 points behind Republican Marco Rubio among likely voters, 40-26 percent. Democrat Kendrick Meek is at 21 percent.
From CNN Politics
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That system is designed to prevent third party candidates, from succeeding. This country wants to criticize other countries for voter fraud????
Don't worry, Charlie. We dems & indies are smarter than this story gives us credit for. We'll find your name and make you the next Freshman Senator from the great State of Florida.
Oh, this is the most hilarious headline of the day: Bad News For Ex-Republican", which was the headline on the main page. Poor CNN, can't stand the thought that Republicans might actually win in November. And heaven forbid a Tea Party candidate wins.
I think I will faint if I ever click over to cnn.com and see "Good News For a Republican" as a headline. If there's bad news you guys always try to attach it to a Republican in some way shape or form. And somehow there's never any bad news for Democrats. Hilarious.
Oh well...vote for Rubio and you'll pretty much get GW.
This is poetic justice! Go Marco!
"Florida law mandates the two major parties appear first followed by minor-party candidates." - Gerrymandering hits the ballots!
So the real message here is that Americans are too lazy to read a list of ten names or too stupid to find their chosen candidate from a list of ten names. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.
Too bad, he's the only one with any common sense out of the pack.
good ... he is running becasue he could not win his primary... its all about him... sorry charlie... your toast...
Theyve got to make a choice now meeks or christ to run against rubio i say christ because he has the indepents backings.
Good this is what this dirtbag deserves. Now go hug the kenyan again.
Yeah, but does Florida still allow each county to set up their own ballots independently of each other? If so, who knows where he will be found? Remember the infamous "butterfly ballot" of West Palm Beach back in 2000? People who thought they were voting for Gore ended up voting for Buchannan (or was that Chad?).
Its not just his position on the ballot that will hurt him. It is also the "Spector effect"."
So people vote without knowing what candidate they are looking for? People vote for someone else if they don't see a familiar name? People blame the ballots for the outcome of an election? We really deserve the people we put in office.
is this how dumb the media and the elite think the voting public is? that they are too dumb to find a person's name on a ballot?
but people voted GWB and BHO- I guess you can call them the Democrat/Republican party sheep....
vote them all out, vote in the constitution and individual responsibilty....
Should make them easier to count/recount.
Floridians do not like turncoats and opportunists. Charlie Crist showed his real colors when he figured he could not win the GOP nomination and decided to run as an independent. I would have voted for him if he had won the GOP race but now.... NO WAY! Now he backpedals on gay marriage, and gays in the military. It does not matter where a person stands on this issue. What really matters though is the fact that Charlie Crist is all about himself and does not care one bit about the people of Florida. He beats John Kerry as the biggest flip flop in politics. Florida will be better when Charlie Crist fades away from politics after his humiliating defeat in November. Sore loser is what comes to mind coupled with narcissist.
sorry charlie.................you are truely sorry!
It wouldn't matter if his name was on the first line and BOLDED!! This man would sell his mother for a vote and sell his children if a poll told him to do so. You can fool people only up to a point and his true character finally came out. Vote for Crist if you want to but just remember he is the "establishment" and politicians like him is the reason we are in the mess we are in. We need to get back to where politicians have moral values and character and Crist has neither....
Just another law that keeps the two party system in a stranglehold over the American Govt.
Suck it up crybaby Crist, it's the law. You do know what a law is, right?
The poor media darling Charlie Crist introuble in Florida.Say it ain't so.CNN is going to have to pay for all their anchors to have therapy.
Hard to believe that where the name is on a ballot is an issue. It means or implies that people have no idea whom they are going to vote for when they get into the booth. How sad. I thought it bad enough that people just look for a "D" or "R" to select... no wonder the country is hurting, and it's worse than I thought.
If people wanted to vote for Crist and his name is on the ballot it should not be a problem whether his name is rirst on the list or ninth on the list.............................UH HO! Wait this is Florida. We all know that people from Florida have trouble with ballots. Poor ol Crist.
Who'd have thunk it..Florida & Delaware are loaded with more uneducated that South Carolina....WOW, amazing!!!