reduced this to two years and removed the term limit, but the state fell to the Union before the first election under that constitution. The rejected constitution of 1865 and the ratified constitution of 1868 maintained the four-year term, though without the earlier term limit, which was reintroduced in the 1885 constitution. The current constitution of 1968 states that should the governor serve, or would have served had he not resigned, more than six years in two consecutive terms, he cannot be elected to the succeeding term. The start of a term was set in 1885 at the first Tuesday after the first Monday in the January following the election, where it has remained. Originally, the president of the state senate acted as governor should that office be vacant. The 1865 and 1868 constitutions created the office of lieutenant governor, who would similarly act as governor. This office was abolished in 1885, with the president of the senate again taking on that duty. The 1968 constitution recreated the office of lieutenant governor, who now becomes governor in the absence of the governor. The governor and lieutenant governor are elected on the same ticket. Florida was a strongly Democratic state before the Civil War, electing only one candidate from the Whig party (the Democrat's chief opposition at the time). It elected three Republican governors following Reconstruction, but after the Democratic Party re-established control, 90 years passed before voters chose another Republican. Acting governor Florida has had a number of people serve as acting governor. The state's first three constitutions provided that the succession in office became operative whenever the governor was out of the state. Thus, in 1853 when Governor Thomas Brown attended an event in Boston—the Senate president who would normally succeed the governor at the time was also out of state. Therefore, the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, A.K. Allison, became acting governor on September 16, 1853. He served for 17 days. Article IV Section 3 (b) of the Florida Constitution now calls for the lieutenant governor to "act as Governor" during the governor's physical or mental incapacity. This provision has been invoked one time. On June 18, 2008, Governor Charlie Crist filed a proclamation with the secretary of state transferring power of governor to Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp pursuant to the constitutional provision while he underwent knee surgery. See also Gubernatorial lines of succession in the