How to become a Florida Precinct Committeeman

How can Tea Party Patriots create long term change? 

Precinct Committeeman can save American’s Liberties. Just one or two generations ago, our forefathers all knew their precinct committeemen. Today, most Republicans do not know that the precinct committeeman position exists.

The office of precinct committeeman (“PC”) has been called “the most powerful office in the world” because the PC is the closest structured political officeholder to the registered voter. A registered voter has two ways to influence internal Party policy; they elect their Precinct Committeemen and Committeewomen.  Registered Republican voters also elects their State Committeeman and Committeewoman.  A PC elects county party officers.  State committeemen and women elect delegates to the Presidential convention and RNC members. State committeemen and women sent to the Pres. Convention vote on what policies the party platform will be advocated in the next two years. Through a monthly meeting, PCs interact with their elected Party officials to influence legislation.

Here’s the point: the Party does have good conservatives in it who are willing to take positions of Party leadership, but they won’t get elected into those positions unless the Party has a solid majority of conservatives in the PC ranks. As a PC, you can devote as much or as little time to other PC tasks such as helping to get out the vote on election day and informing the voters in your precinct about the best candidates, how best to vote on initiatives, etc. Politics matter. Look at the outcome of the last election. But to be able to vote for the Party leadership, a conservative registered Republican voter must be a PC. It’s that simple.

A Few Hours A Month Is All It Takes — And It’s Easy.

Rather than spending a few hours at a Tea Party, do YOU have a couple of hours a month to spend on a weeknight and, perhaps, on a Saturday, to take our country back? Is your, and your children’s, liberty not worth at least that?

Don’t Have A Few Hours A Month? Stop Reading.

Where do the candidates on our primary ballots come from? An estimated 95 per cent of the candidates of the Republican and Democrat parties who win the primary election are those who are endorsed by the leadership of those parties.

Do You Know Who Elects The Party Leaders? Did You Elect Them?

Who elects the leadership of the parties? Do you know? Are you a registered Republican? Guess what? As a “mere” registered Republican voter, without more, you DID NOT have a vote in the election of the present leadership of the Republican Party. Sorry, but those are the facts.

ONLY  precinct committeemen get to vote for the leadership of the Party. Do I yet have your attention? Ponder the fact that ONLY  precinct committeemen get to elect the Party leadership. Don’t you want to have a vote in those elections?

Sixty-Seven (67) counties exist in the Florida. Each has a county party organization. And, those county organizations almost always endorse candidates in the party primaries. And, usually, those party-endorsed candidates win. Tired of seeing liberal Republicans win the primaries? Then DO SOMETHING REAL and become a Republican Party precinct committeeman! Guess what? About half of the Republican Party precinct committeeman slots, in Florida, are unfilled!

Spend a few moments and picture this in your mind’s eye: thousands of conservatives flock to the Republican Party and join it as precinct committeemen. And, in the next internal party elections, these conservatives (you, me and others) elect NEW, CONSERVATIVE leadership. (Or, instead, these same conservatives (me, excepted) sit behind their computer screens and put first on their priority list, instead of second, writing that next, great blog post that is going to, somehow, save the republic.)

Exit your mind’s eye. Back to reality. The Florida Precinct Project CAN work. It has worked in Nevada. Conservatives won because about a thousand conservatives left their keyboards for a couple of hours each month and got into the REAL political ball game. So, I and others continue to try to recruit more conservatives into the precinct committeeman ranks. We try to get people off the sidelines and into the ACTUAL, REAL ball game. The rough-and-tumble hard work of actually showing up – God forbid – at a Republican Party legislative district meeting once a month. Instead of typing away to the conservative choir on the internet.

So, What Does One Have To Do To Become A Precinct Committeeman?

Every Florida County is divided up into legislative districts from which your state assembly and senate candidates are elected. Each county is also divided up into precincts. Precincts generally, in a city, are about the size of five or ten city blocks, depending upon the population density of the city.

Because most precinct committeemen run unopposed, most counties, to save money, get the parties to agree that all non-contested precinct committeeman candidates be omitted from the ballot to save printing costs. That’s one reason why most voters don’t know about the office of precinct committeeman. Another reason: public schools no longer teach Civics.

There are 2 ways to become a Florida Precinct Committeeman.  Every four years Precinct Committeemen and Committeewomen are elected in Florida.  The next election is scheduled for August 2012.

Precinct Committeemen and Precinct Committeewomen Election

Per Florida Election Laws F.S  2011; Section 103.091, each of the precincts in your County will have their precinct Committeeman and Committeewoman offices up for election in the 14 August, 2012 Primary.  Each precinct will have at least one man and one women office.  Many precincts have more offices based on the number of registered voters in the precinct.   There are typically 2 to 4 hundred Precinct Committeeman offices and Precinct Committeewoman offices in Florida counties.   You should ask your local party for your county numbers.  These numbers will be updated around 2 June 2012 based on the number of registered voters.

There are two (2) steps to become a PC candidate:

Step 1: Submit Florida Elections form DS-DE 24C (Rev. 5/11) per Florida Election Laws F.S  2011; Section 99.021

a. Download form DS-DE 24C (Rev. 5/11 ) “Candidate Oath – Precinct Committeemen and Committeewomen” by clicking this link.

b. Complete DS-DE 24C (Rev. 5/11)

i.      You cannot have been a member of another political party after 4 June 2011.

ii.      You must be a resident of the precinct you specify on the form.

iii.      You must sign the form in front of a Notary Public.

c. Prior to noon 8 June 2012, file form DS-DE 24C (Rev. 5/11) at the Supervisor of Elections office.

d. If there are more candidates than Precinct Committeemen or Committeewomen offices in your precinct, your name will appear on the ballot.  Otherwise you will “win” your election by default.

Step 2: Submit RPOF Loyalty Oath per RPOF Party Rules of Procedure dated 1/15/2011; Rule 9

1. Download the ”Republican Party of Florida Party Loyalty Oath” by clicking this link.

a. Complete the RPOF Loyalty Oath

i.      Your signature must be witnessed.

b. Submit the completed RPOF Loyalty Oath to the Chairman or Chairman’s designee by noon 8 June 2012.

Precinct Committeemen and Precinct Committeewomen Appointment

The second way to become a Precinct Committeeman is to be appointed.

Steps to becoming an appointed Precinct Committeeman:

1. Determine your precinct
2. Determine how many Precinct Committeeman positions are vacant in your precinct
3. Contact your County Republican Party for a Precinct Committeeman application
4. Submit your application to your County Republican Party.  You will typically have to fill out a party Loyalty oath as well.

Determine your precinct.  Do you have a Florida Voter ID card?  It will tell you what precinct you reside in, which congressional district you live in, which state legislative district you live in, and which school district you live.  If you do not have the voting card, find your Supervisor of Elections by Map or by a List.  They can tell you your precinct number.

Determine how many Precinct Committeeman positions are open in your precinct.  Every Florida precinct has at least one Precinct Committeeman and one Precinct Committeewoman.  They also have an additional Committeeman and Committeewoman for each one thousand registered voters.  You can determine the number of open PC positions from your county Supervisor of Elections. (find your Supervisor of Elections by Map or by a List). 

Contact your County Republican Party for a Precinct Committeeman position.  Your main goal will be find out where your Republican Party legislative district organization meets and then contact the chairman of that organization to let them know that you want to become a precinct committeeman as soon as possible.

The County list here has most Florida County Executive Committee web sites.

If this does not provide the contact information you need, use the following procedure.

Find your county organization at the Republican Party state web site here: http://www.rpof.org/local.php.

When you get to your County Party entry, look for Local GOP or Contacts, etc.  Just keep trying to find your county and your congressional district and legislative district. Then start calling and e-mailing the elected Party leaders “closest” to you and tell them you want to volunteer to become an interim, appointed precinct committeeman as soon as possible and that you eventually want to become an elected precinct committeeman when the primary season rolls around. If necessary, look in the phone book and find the number and address of your local Republican Party office. Call them. If they don’t call back, get in your car and go to the office and bang on the door until someone answers and tell them you want to know how you, as a Republican can become a Precinct Committeeman.

If you still can’t locate your county Executive Committee, you can search the internet by using the following search terms: “Republican Party county chairman [name of your county] Florida”.