Jacksonville City Elections

Jacksonville runs its city elections differently from almost every other race on a Duval County ballot. Instead of a closed party primary in August followed by a November general election, the consolidated City of Jacksonville holds two spring rounds. The first round, which WOKV called the First Unitary Election in 2019, is open to all registered voters regardless of party, and each voter sees the races for the City Council district where that voter lives. Party labels appear next to candidates' names, but any voter can choose any candidate.

The point is that the first round can end the race. News4JAX explained in 2019 that the March first election is not a primary, so a candidate who gets more than 50 percent of the vote is elected outright. Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan called the format unique and said his office was fielding complaints from voters who expected party primaries. In a 2022 Jacksonville Today column, Jack Webb summed up the design: a first election open to candidates of any party, then a second round between the top two vote getters if no one clears 50 percent plus one vote.

The arithmetic is simple. A candidate needs 50 percent of the vote plus one to win in the first round, according to WJCT. If no candidate reaches that line in a race with three or more candidates, the two with the most votes advance to the second round, called the General Unitary Election, in May. Party does not matter at either stage: two Republicans or two Democrats can meet in May, and in 2023 two Democrats did in the race for council District 8, which takes in Oceanway and the area around the airport on the Northside.

For voters in Jacksonville, the practical effect is that the spring vote counts for more than it seems. In March 2019 the WOKV guide listed registration deadlines of February 19 for the March election and April 15 for May, separate vote-by-mail request deadlines for each round, and two separate early voting windows of 14 days each. Every registered voter in Duval County, whether Democrat, Republican or no party, gets a full ballot in both rounds. The Supervisor of Elections Office handles both elections, from sample ballots to the Canvassing Board review of provisional ballots.

Mail ballots follow the same rules in both rounds. WOKV noted in 2019 that a vote-by-mail ballot must reach the Supervisor of Elections by 7 p.m. on Election Day, that the signature on the envelope must match the one on file because that is how a voter's identity is confirmed, and that a voter holding an unused mail ballot can turn it in at any early voting site or polling place and vote in person instead. At the polls, Duval voters must show a current photo and signature ID, such as a Florida driver license or a U.S. passport, or cast a provisional ballot.

The spring ballot carries the consolidated government's elected offices. In 2019, WOKV listed mayor, sheriff, 15 City Council seats, property appraiser and tax collector, with the supervisor of elections also on the ballot. That January, the close of qualifying set the field for the March 19, 2019 ballot, and WJCT reported Hogan himself running unopposed for reelection. The council itself has 19 seats, 14 by district and five at large, according to the City of Jacksonville. Because Jacksonville and Duval County merged in 1968, offices that would be county races elsewhere in Florida, such as sheriff and property appraiser, appear on this city ballot.

Some races are settled before anyone votes. In the 2023 cycle the Florida Times-Union reported that Sheriff T.K. Waters ran unopposed, and that Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland and Tax Collector Jim Overton were also elected without opposition. The same voter guide noted that all but three council seats were on the ballot, with eight of 19 seats having no incumbent in the race, and that the mayoral field had seven candidates, two Democrats, four Republicans and one with no party affiliation.

The two-round system rewards a united field. In 2015 Lenny Curry beat incumbent Mayor Alvin Brown 51 to 49 percent in the May runoff, and in 2019 Curry won outright in the March election with 58 percent, according to Ballotpedia News. In 2023, Republicans split the first-round vote among Daniel Davis, LeAnna Cumber and Al Ferraro, and Donna Deegan then beat Davis 52 to 48 percent in the May runoff, Jacksonville Today reported.

The same 2023 spring cycle changed other offices. On the council, all five citywide seats stayed Republican after the May runoffs, while Democrats gained a district seat, according to Jacksonville Today. Joyce Morgan, a former District 1 council member from Arlington, became both the first African American and first woman to serve as Duval County Property Appraiser on July 1, 2023, the City of Jacksonville notes. Turnout is the long-running weakness: Hogan said in 2019 that city elections had historically drawn 20 to 30 percent of voters.

The next cycle is spring 2027. Jacksonville Today reported on April 16, 2026, when Mayor Deegan filed for a second term outside the Supervisor of Elections Office, that the first election falls on the March 9, 2027 ballot, and that the qualifying period runs from noon January 11 through noon January 15, 2027. Deegan is seeking to become the first Democratic mayor to win reelection in Jacksonville since Jake Godbold in 1983, and the same report named council members Ron Salem and Rory Diamond among Republicans thought to be interested in the office.

The electorate has shifted since 2023. On April 16, 2026, Jacksonville Today counted 641,150 registered voters in Duval County: 240,404 Democrats, 235,337 Republicans, 142,186 with no party affiliation and 23,223 others, with Republicans having closed the gap by more than 15,000 voters since 2023. Because the first round is open to all of them, the 142,186 no-party voters, who cannot vote in Florida's closed partisan primaries, get a full say in March.

The Duval County Supervisor of Elections runs the vote. The office's website lists the main office at 105 East Monroe Street downtown and the Elections Center at 1 Imeson Park Boulevard on the Northside, and in October 2026 carries a message from Supervisor Jerry Holland. In 2019, voters could use any of 19 early voting sites regardless of precinct, among them the University of North Florida and Edward Waters College, and cast Election Day ballots at 199 precincts, according to WOKV.

The council keeps an advisory role. The Duval County Election Advisory Panel, established under Chapter 59 of the Ordinance Code, studies and recommends improvements in voter registration, education and the election-day experience, and it reports to the council each year. It has nine members: three designated by the Council President, three by the Mayor and three by the Supervisor of Elections, and the panel is advisory only, with no power over the supervisor's duties. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Jacksonville website.