Dear Editor:
Florida’s closed-primary loophole is one of the worst abuses of voter rights in the country today and a key reason why a move to partisan primaries for school board elections would be a disaster for voters.
Some history: In 1997, 64% of Florida voters passed the Universal Primary Amendment. It said primaries must be open to all voters if the winner of the primary will face no opposition in the general election. When all the candidates for a seat are from the same party, the primary election is the de facto general election.
In 2000, then Secretary of State Katherine Harris wrote an opinion that write-in candidates, registered as members of the party that isn’t fielding candidates, can close the primary. This write-in loophole has not been taken up by the courts and allows political parties to disenfranchise two-thirds of voters.
Here’s how it works: The party fielding all the candidates for a race, say sheriff, asks someone to become a write-in candidate in the other party’s primary race. A write-in candidate must file qualification papers, but does not need to pay a filing fee, or get an election assessment or a party assessment.
A study by Open Primaries revealed that between 1998 and 2022, 114 Florida races for Congress and the legislature were closed by write-in candidates. Forty-seven were Republican primaries and 67 were Democrat primaries. In all, 8.2 million voters were disenfranchised.
This is why I feel it’s critically important to vote “no” on Amendment 1 and keep school board races nonpartisan so that every Florida voter has the opportunity to vote for school board members. Otherwise, both parties will manipulate future elections to shut Florida voters out of any meaningful decision-making in these races.
Sincerely,
Sandra “Sam” Williams
