Alachua County

Baker County

Bay County

Bradford County

Brevard County

Broward County

Calhoun County

Charlotte County

Citrus County

Clay County

Collier County

Columbia County

DeSoto County

Dixie County

Duval County

Escambia County

Flagler County

Franklin County

Gadsden County

Gilchrist County

Glades County

Gulf County

Hamilton County

Hardee County

Hendry County

Hernando County

Highlands County

Hillsborough County

Holmes County

Indian River County

Jackson County

Jefferson County

Lafayette County

Lake County

Lee County

Leon County

Levy County

Liberty County

Madison County

Manatee County

Marion County

Martin County

Miami-Dade County

Monroe County

Nassau County

Okaloosa County

Okeechobee County

Orange County

Osceola County

Palm Beach County

Pasco County

Pinellas County

Polk County

Putnam County

Santa Rosa County

Sarasota County

Seminole County

St. Johns County

St. Lucie County

Sumter County

Suwannee County

Taylor County

Union County

Volusia County

Wakulla County

Walton County

Washington County

Note: Locations vary by chamber. Representatives are shown with their reported city of residence. Senators are shown with their primary office city.

ImplementationMike Stucka, The Palm Beach Post
DesignMike Stucka and Mark Buzek, The Palm Beach Post
ConceptSunshine Week Committee, Florida Society of News Editors
Bill selectionBarbara Petersen, First Amendment Foundation

The scoring system for the Florida Society of News Editors assigns points for a list of critical government openness bills. Legislators get three points for a floor vote, seven points for co-sponsoring a bill and 10 points for sponsoring a bill that’s on the list. Votes against openness lose points; votes for openness gain points. Legislators got a bonus point for communicating with the Florida First Amendment Foundation about the bill. The scores were compared to the session’s most extreme legislator — good or bad — and turned into standard letter grades for comparison. A perfectly neutral legislator would get a C. In 2017, the most extreme good score paled in comparison with the most extreme worst vote, leaving no legislator with an A score but some with Fs.

The scoring system was criticized by high- and low-scoring legislators from both parties and both legislative chambers. Among the criticisms: The scoring system is too simplistic, didn’t consider the right bills, offered no way to measure a legislator’s overall positive attitude about the importance of open records, and extremely low-scoring legislators altered the scale in a way that made it all but impossible to get As.

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