Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, comes to Fort Myers today to get signatures to launch his campaign to get on the ballot for the Florida U.S. Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez

Beginning at 3 p.m. today, you’ll have a chance to sign a petition to get U.S. Congressman Kendrick Meek from Miami on the ballot for a seat in the U.S. Senate. The event which is being called a kickoff celebration to launch his bid to qualify for the Senate by petition is being held at 3210 Martin Luther King Blvd. in fort Myers. He wants to be the Democratic nominee to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Mel Martinez.

For Meek to get on the ballot, he will need to sign up and submit 112,476 valid signatures and present them to the county board of election supervisors by March of next year. It hasn’t happened before where a senatorial race has been filled by a candidates who qualified by getting the required number of petitions.