Editing Leon County, Florida (section)

==Law, government, and politics==

===Politics===
[[Image:LeonCoCrtHs2-16Sep2007.JPG|thumb|Leon County courthouse in [[Tallahassee]]; 2007]]
Leon County is governed by an elected seven-member board of [[county commission]]ers.

Following Reconstruction, white Democrats regained power in Leon County and voters have historically voted for [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] candidates at the national level. Tallahassee is one of the few cities in the [[Southern United States|South]] known for [[Progressivism|progressive]] [[activism]].

The county has voted Democratic in 24 of the past 29 presidential elections since 1904.<ref>{{cite web
|title=In Tallahassee
|magazine=[[Journal of Hispanic Philology]]
|volume=10
|number=2
|first=Daniel
|last=Eisenberg
|year=1986
|pages=97–101
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006090302/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/JHPcolumn/jhp102.pdf |archive-date=October 6, 2014}}</ref> Its political affiliations likely draw from the high number of students, staff, and faculty associated with [[Florida State University]], [[Florida A&M University]], and [[Tallahassee State College]] in Tallahassee, as well as the concentration of government employees.

Leon County has had the highest voter turnout of any Florida county. In the [[United States elections, 2008|2008 general election]], it had a record-setting voter turnout of 85%, including [[early voting]] and [[vote by mail|voting by mail]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.leonvotes.org/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810152722/http://www.leoncountyfl.gov/elect/|url-status=dead|title=Home - Leon County Supervisor of Elections|archive-date=August 10, 2014|website=www.leonvotes.org|access-date=October 2, 2019}}</ref>

As of March 31, 2024, there were 98,612 Democrats, 54,464 Republicans, and 43,600 voters with other affiliations in Leon County.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dos.myflorida.com/elections/data-statistics/voter-registration-statistics/voter-registration-reportsxlsx/voter-registration-by-party-affiliation/|title=Voter Registration—By Party Affiliation|publisher=Florida Department of State|access-date=March 2, 2023|archive-date= September 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908113635/https://www.dos.myflorida.com/elections/data-statistics/voter-registration-statistics/voter-registration-reportsxlsx/voter-registration-by-party-affiliation/|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{PresHead|place=Leon County, Florida|whig=no|source1=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=June 15, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP/Whig vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Democratic|60,397|94,520|2,810|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|57,453|103,517|2,506|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2016|Democratic|53,821|92,068|7,992|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2012|Democratic|55,805|90,881|1,985|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|55,705|91,747|1,483|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|51,615|83,873|891|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|39,073|61,444|2,637|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|33,930|50,072|7,715|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|31,983|47,791|17,520|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|36,055|33,472|631|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|36,325|29,683|38|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1980|Democratic|24,919|28,450|3,957|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|23,739|28,729|975|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|27,479|15,555|92|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1968|American Independent|9,288|10,440|12,878|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1964|Republican|15,181|10,927|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|9,079|10,433|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1956|Democratic|6,828|7,022|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|5,604|8,000|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|1,149|3,607|1,405|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|835|4,505|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|583|5,459|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|277|3,770|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|252|2,950|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|630|1,888|31|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|92|947|71|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|452|1,412|104|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|191|875|104|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1912|Democratic|56|546|64|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1908|Democratic|143|698|117|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1904|Democratic|84|649|6|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1900|Democratic|162|932|67|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1896|Democratic|247|1,298|47|Florida}}
{{PresFoot|1892|Democratic|0|634|0|Florida}}

====County representation====
{| class="toccolours"  style="fixed:right; margin-left:1em; width:450px;"
! style="text-align: center; background:darkblue" colspan="4" | <span style="color:white;">'''Leon County Government'''</span>
|-
| '''Position''' || '''Name''' || '''Party''' ||
|-
| colspan="4" |
----
|-
| Commissioner, At-Large || Nicholas J. Maddox || Democratic
|-
| Commissioner, At-Large || Carolyn D. Cummings || Democratic
|-
| Commissioner, Dist. 1 || William C. Proctor || Democratic
|-
| Commissioner, Dist. 2 || Christian Caban || Democratic
|-
| Commissioner, Dist. 3 || W. Richard Minor || Democratic
|-
| Commissioner, Dist. 4 || G. Brian Welch || Democratic
|-
| Commissioner, Dist. 5 || David O'Keefe || Democratic
|-
| [[Supervisor of Elections (Florida)|Supervisor of Elections]] || Mark Earley || [[Independent (politician)|NPA]]
|-
| Tax Collector || Doris Maloy || Democratic
|-
| Property Appraiser || Akin Akinyemi || Democratic
|-
| Court Clerk || Gwendolyn M. Marshall || Democratic
|-
| Sheriff || Walt McNeil || Democratic
|-
| School Superintendent || James P. "Rocky" Hanna || Democratic
|}
* [http://www.co.leon.fl.us/MAP/maps.asp Map of County Commission Districts]

===State representation===
[[Allison Tant]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]), District 9, represents Leon County's northern half, including most of Tallahassee. [[Jason Shoaf]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]), District 7, represents the county's southern portion. He won office in a special election.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://floridapolitics.com/archives/299049-shoaf-wins-house-district-7|title=Republican Jason Shoaf wins House District 7 special election|date=June 19, 2019|website=Florida Politics|access-date=October 15, 2019}}</ref> [[Gallop Franklin]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]), District 8, represents a west-central portion of the county.

====State senator====
All of Leon County is represented by [[Corey Simon]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]), District 3, in the Florida Senate.

===U.S. Congressional representation===
Leon County is located in the 2nd congressional district after the 2020 census redistricting process was completed. It is currently represented by [[Neal Dunn]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]).

===Consolidation===
Leon County voters have gone to the [[Polling station|polls]] four times to vote on [[Consolidated city-county|consolidation]] of the [[Tallahassee, Florida|Tallahassee]] and Leon County governments into one jurisdiction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leonvotes.org/Portals/Leon/Documents/Elections%20and%20Results/PDFs_XLSs/Consolidation_City_County_Government.pdf|title=Consolidation of City (Tallahassee) & County (Leon) Government|publisher=Leon County Supervisor of Elections|access-date=November 2, 2017}}</ref> This proposal would combine police and other city services with the already shared (consolidated) [[Tallahassee Fire Department]], Tallahassee/Leon County Planning Department, and [[Leon County Emergency Medical Services]]. Tallahassee's city limits would (at current size) increase from {{convert|98.2|sqmi|km2}} to {{convert|702|sqmi|km2}}. Roughly 36 percent of Leon County's 250,000 residents live outside the Tallahassee city limits.
{| class="toccolours"  style="left:left; margin-left:1em; width:300px;"
! colspan="8" style="text-align: center; background:blue" | <span style="color:white;">'''Leon County Voting On Consolidation''' </span>
|-
| '''Year''' || '''For''' || '''Against'''
|-
| colspan="3" |
----
|-
| 1971 || 10,381  (41.32%) || 14,740  (58.68%)
|-
| 1973 || 11,056  (46.23%) || 12,859  (53.77%)
|-
| 1976 || 20,336  (45.01%) || 24,855  (54.99%)
|-
| 1992 || 37,062  (39.8%) || 56,070  (60.2%)
|}
Proponents of consolidation have claimed that the new jurisdiction would attract business by its very size. Merging of governments would cut government waste, duplication of services, etc. Professor [[Richard Feiock]] of Florida State University found in a 2007 study that he could not conclude that consolidation would benefit the local economy.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.fsu.edu/~localgov/publication_files/Feiock&Park&Kang_Consolidation_K3.pdf|title=City County Consolidation Efforts: Selective Incentives and Institutional Choice|website=www.fsu.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614150850/http://www.fsu.edu/~localgov/publication_files/Feiock%26Park%26Kang_Consolidation_K3.pdf |archive-date=June 14, 2007}}</ref>