Nearly three-quarters of Floridians have never witnessed Jeb Bush’s name on a ballot

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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ran for political office in 2002, winning the largest percentage of the vote for any Republican since Reconstruction.

That was, however, 13 years ago, and the population of registered voters in the state has changed dramatically since then.

Bloomberg Politics conducted a study with the University of Florida that found that nearly three-quarters of Florida’s registered voters have never even seen Bush’s name on a ballot.

“That’s a surprisingly large number, which is due to a combination of low turnout and the turnover in the electorate over the 13 years since he was last on the ballot,” explained Daniel Smith, the University of Florida political scientist who contributed the study.

According to Smith, only 3.35 million of the nearly 13 million registered voters in Florida cast a ballot in 2002, just more than 25 percent. Approximately 35 percent of the registered voters from 2002 have disappeared entirely from the Florida voter rolls, either because they have died, moved away, been sent to prison, or been stripped of their right to vote because they were deemed “mentally incapacitated.”

Meanwhile, 92 percent of Floridians who voted in the 2010 election, when Marco Rubio was last on the ballot, are still registered.

Several factors are working against Bush: Florida has the most senior citizens, meaning many have passed away in the last 13 years. It is also the second most-transient state after Nevada, meaning many have moved over the last decade. Florida also has the ninth highest incarceration rate among the nation’s states, meaning many have gone to prison and lost their right to vote.

There are 1.7 million more Floridians who have cast a ballot in Rubio’s election in 2010 than Bush’s election in 2002, indicating that the power of incumbency isn’t as strong as Bush might hope for.