Floridians voted almost 20 years ago to Open Primary ballots and allow all voters to decide a race if the only candidates were from the same Political Party.
However, a loophole using write-in candidates is thwarting what many say is the spirit of that 1998 Constitutional Amendment. And some voters in Tuesday's Primary election agreed.
“I think both parties, Republicans and Democrats, are afraid that if they open up that loophole, they’ll get groups to go and push for candidates that are more favorable to their movements,” said J.B. Davis, a Republican small business owner, outside his South Tampa precinct. “I think people should be allowed to vote no matter what party you’re in.”
All it takes is one outside write-in candidate to close a race between same-Party candidates to all but those registered to that Party.
“As an independent voter, I would love to see open primaries,” said Roger Breit, a seventh grade civics teacher in Tampa. “I would actually like to see progressive voting whereby you have your number one pick, your number two pick, your number three pick so that would allow a little bit more access by third party candidates.”
There were a record 35 write-in candidates in Florida’s Primary Tuesday, disenfranchising 1.6 million voters, according to a Tampa Bay Times investigation.
Richard Winger of Ballot Access News writes:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 in California Democratic Party v Jones that if a party doesn't want members of other parties voting in its primaries, then the party has a First Amendment freedom of association to block members of other parties from voting in its primaries. So the write-in law is irrelevant. Even if that were not in the Florida Constitution, the U.S. Constitution takes precedence, and if the Democratic Party and/or the Republican Party don't want members of other parties helping choose their nominees, they can prevent them.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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