Monday, January 25th, 2010 | Posted by Andrea Freygang

Early voting starts today in primary to replace Wexler in Congress

Early voting starts today, January 25, for a special election primary in U.S. Congressional District 19. The seat opened when Congressman Robert Wexler turned in his resignation back in October 2009, effective January 2010, to become president of the Center for Middle East Peace. The official primary election date is Feb. 2, 2010.

In the election, there are three Republican candidates running, two Democrats, one write-in and one independent. Today starts the primary runoff between the Republican and Democratic candidates to choose their candidate for the April 13 general election for the U.S. congressional seat. To clarify, Republicans can only vote in the primary for Republican candidates and ditto for Democratic candidates. The winners of the primary elections will then face off against each other and the independent/write-in candidates in April. In essence, each party nominates the front-runner for the official election.

On the Republican side, long-time front runner Edward Lynch, who ran against Wexler in 2008 for the seat, garnering 27 percent of the vote in his first election against an incumbent, is the lead candidate. Running against Lynch are Joe Budd and Curt Price.

On the Democrat side, you have Ted Deutch, a current Florida senator (this means another special election if he wins). Deutch is the favored son on the Democratic side, running against Ben Graber, who has run twice for this seat previously and lost.

Also running for District 19 is Jim McCormick, who has no party affiliation as well as Josue Larose, a write-in from Deerfield Beach who is a federal lobbyist who has started 60 different political action committees. (no Web site available for Larose) Neither of these candidates will be on the primary ballots, since the primary is party affiliates only. They will show up in the general election ballot, rescheduled from April 6 to April 13 because of Passover.

The district runs through portions of Deerfield Beach, Pompano, Coconut Creek, Coral Springs, Parkland, Margate, Tamarac, and even portions of North Fort Lauderdale. It also runs through most of West Boca, Delray Beach and up through West Palm Beach.

ELECTION INFORMATION 2010

If you don’t know your district, check here to see if you are qualified to vote in the special primary and general election for District 19. http://www.flsenate.gov/Legislators/index.cfm?Mode=Find%20Your%20Legislators&Submenu=3&Tab=legislators&CFID=183122747&CFTOKEN=24584925.

In Broward, early voting has started with voting booths open at North Regional Library/Broward College, or the Northwest Regional Library, .ELECTION INFORMATION 2010 Early voting in Jan. 25 through Jan. 30 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 8:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30. Residents can also vote by absentee ballot. January 27th is the last day to request an Absentee Ballot to be mailed. Please call the 24-hour Absentee Ballot Request Line at or go to: http://www.browardsoe.org/content.aspx?id=30.

CANDIDATE WEB SITES

http://www.electlynch.com/

http://www.joebuddforcongress.com/

http://curtpriceforcongress.com/

http://www.tedforcongress.com/

http://www.jimmccormickforcongress.com

http://www.bgraberforcongress.com/home

There is no Web Site for Josue Larose.