Florida Government: The Statewide Guides

Florida state government has three branches under the Florida Constitution: a governor who holds the supreme executive power, a two-house Legislature, and a court system headed by a seven-justice Florida Supreme Court (Florida Constitution).

The governor is commander-in-chief of all military forces of the state not in active service of the United States, and a Florida governor is elected every four years in a general election (Division of Elections). Beside the governor sits the Florida Cabinet. There shall be a cabinet composed of an attorney general, a chief financial officer, and a commissioner of agriculture, in the words of Article IV of the Florida Constitution (Florida Constitution).

Each Cabinet seat has its own job in the Florida Constitution. The chief financial officer is the chief fiscal officer of the state and keeps all state funds and securities, and the commissioner of agriculture supervises matters pertaining to agriculture. The governor as chair, the chief financial officer and the attorney general also sit together as the State Board of Administration (Florida Constitution). The Florida state government structure guide walks through the agencies under each branch, the Florida Cabinet structure guide covers what the three Cabinet officers do, and the Florida Constitution history guide traces how the current document came to be.

The Florida Legislature has a 40-member Senate and a 120-member House of Representatives, and its next Regular Session convenes on Tuesday, March 2, 2027 (Florida Senate glossary; Florida Senate).

The session calendar is fixed in the Florida Constitution. A regular session convenes on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March of each odd-numbered year and on the second Tuesday after the first Monday in January of each even-numbered year. A regular session shall not exceed sixty consecutive days, and a special session is capped at twenty days unless three-fifths of each house votes to extend it (Florida Constitution). The 2027 date follows the odd-year March rule. Before then, the Senate posts its 2026-2027 interim committee meeting schedule, with weekly schedules and meeting notices posted before each meeting (Florida Senate).

A recent law shows what that calendar produces for households in Florida. The Senate home page highlights HB 7031, which permanently eliminates the sales tax on many disaster and hurricane preparedness supplies as well as several safety and health related items (Florida Senate). The guide to how the Florida Legislature makes law follows a bill from filing through committees, floor votes and the governor's desk.

Florida has four levels of courts, the Florida Supreme Court, the district courts of appeal, the circuit courts and the county courts, and the Constitution forbids any other court (Florida Constitution).

Six district courts of appeal are created, and the state is divided into six appellate districts of contiguous circuits, under section 35.01 of the Florida Statutes as amended by chapter 2022-163 (Florida Statutes section 35.01). Below them, the state is divided into 20 judicial circuits. Some circuits hold one county, such as the sixteenth circuit (Monroe County) and the seventeenth (Broward County), while the nineteenth circuit is composed of Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties (Florida Statutes section 26.021).

Prosecution follows the same circuit map in Florida. In each judicial circuit a state attorney shall be elected for a term of four years and serves as the prosecuting officer of the trial courts in that circuit (Florida Constitution), so Florida has 20 elected state attorneys. The guide to how the Florida court system works explains appeals and jurisdiction, and the Florida state attorney system guide covers what those 20 offices do.

Florida is divided into 67 counties, cities and towns govern themselves under home rule powers, and more than 2,080 special districts provide services to residents, businesses and property (Division of Elections; FloridaCommerce).

A Florida county works under one of two models. Counties operating under county charters shall have all powers of local self-government not inconsistent with general law, while non-charter counties have only the self-government powers that general or special law provides (Florida Constitution). The Florida county government overview guide explains the elected county offices and what a county commission controls.

Florida municipalities shall have the governmental, corporate, and proprietary powers to conduct municipal government and may exercise any power for municipal purposes except when expressly prohibited by law (Florida Statutes section 166.021). The Florida municipal government types guide compares the forms of government Florida cities use.

FloridaCommerce describes its Special District Accountability Program as a centralized source of information about Florida's 2,080-plus special districts, and its official list records each district's independent or dependent status, special purpose and the counties where it has territory (FloridaCommerce). The Florida special districts explained guide covers how these districts are created, governed and funded.

Florida holds its general election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year, and Election Day 2026 is November 3 (Division of Elections).

Voting itself is local: each of the 67 county Supervisors of Elections runs voting in that county (Division of Elections).

A Florida primary election is held 11 weeks before the general election to nominate party candidates, and the 2026 primary Election Day was August 18, 2026 (Division of Elections). For the November 3, 2026 general election the Division of Elections lists October 5, 2026 as the deadline to register to vote and October 22, 2026 as the deadline to request that a vote-by-mail ballot be mailed, with the mandatory early voting period running October 24 to 31, 2026 (Division of Elections).

On the date this page was checked, October 15, 2026, the Florida registration deadline for November had passed, and the next fixed date on the Florida calendar is the October 22 deadline to request a mailed ballot. Supervisors may add optional early voting days beyond the mandatory period, which is why the state page sends voters to their county office (Division of Elections). The Florida elections process guide covers registration, ballots and certification.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Florida Senate and Florida Division of Elections websites.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management is responsible for maintaining a comprehensive statewide program of emergency management (Florida Statutes section 252.35).

The division coordinates with the federal government, other state agencies, county and municipal governments, school boards and private agencies that have a role in emergency management (Florida Statutes section 252.35). The National Hurricane Center gives the Atlantic hurricane season as June 1 to November 30 (National Hurricane Center).

Under section 252.35 the division prepares the state comprehensive emergency management plan, including an evacuation component with regional planning, submits the complete plan to the Senate President, the House Speaker and the governor on February 1 of every even-numbered year, and adopts standards that every Florida county emergency management plan must meet (Florida Statutes section 252.35).

The National Hurricane Center puts the peak of the Atlantic season on September 10, and an average Atlantic season based on 1991 to 2020 has 14 named storms (National Hurricane Center). Mid-October is still inside the Florida season. The storm guides divide the work: the Florida 2026 hurricane season outlook, the NOAA hurricane cone explained, Florida storm surge explained, the Florida flood zone map 2026, the Florida emergency management overview, the Florida hurricane evacuation overview, Florida evacuation routes, hurricane shutter permits in Florida, FEMA disaster aid in Florida and the post-hurricane checklist in Florida.

Veterans services are also a state function. The Florida Constitution directs the Legislature to provide for a Department of Veterans Affairs and makes the governor and Cabinet the head of that department (Florida Constitution). The Florida veterans affairs overview guide covers its benefits offices.

The Florida government section holds 21 statewide guides, and the table below matches each common question about Florida government to its key fact and the guide that answers it.