GREEN COVE SPRINGS — Maxwell Clarke is a researcher and recent graduate from the University of Florida who is embarking on a historical scavenger hunt across Florida. His goal is to collect and digitize historical election results from all 67 counties and municipalities in the state. 

Unlike other U.S. states, Florida lacks a statewide record of the election results for its counties, cities and towns. Because of that historical gap, Clarke has made his way to each county to collect data for a project with the University of Florida, which would make that data open and accessible.  

"It's actually really hard to find election data from the past, especially when some counties told me they had no historical data at all,"  said. 

However, he was impressed when he made a stop at the Clay County Archives last Friday. 

"Clay County was one of the better ones, fortunately," he said.

He was able to find election data from the 19th century from the archives. He was impressed with 30 boxes the archives housed which preserved the voter registration lists during that time. He also came across canvassing board certificates, the official certification of election results. 

He found election results from 1863 during the Civil War, which is an interesting and maybe a novel discovery. In Arch Fredric Blakey's historical work, "Parade of Memories," Clay County is described in 1863 as being "an unsettled condition" ravaged by the war, looting and stealing. Many residents refused to pay taxes. So, the election results during that time could give added context on the condition of the county —  especially if the voter turnout was abysmal. 

"What was really cool was in 1919 when women got the right to vote here in Clay County," said the county's Historical Archives Supervisor Vishi Garig. "We had several pages in a ledger book with names in box No. 2 with nearly 100 names."

While the nation passed the 19th Amendment, Florida didn't pass it into law until May 13, 1969. 

"Florida didn't want to ratify it because they didn't want Black women to vote," Garig said. "But here in Clay, they allowed it. Black and white women have always been allowed to vote."

Including in 1919, she said.

Clarke also consulted data from the supervisor of election's office, which has results spanning from the present back to 1956.

He said there was a gap between the late 19th century and 1956, which he plans to fill in with data from local newspapers published during that time and historical groups. 

The election data from Clay and other counties will be uploaded electronically to a database in the near future. Clarke has been to 14 counties so far, and the list is continuing to grow as he makes his way around Florida.