Primaries:
- Congressional and state primaries: Closed
- Presidential primaries: Closed
PRIMARY ELECTIONS STATE BY STATE
Florida
Registration:
- Voters may or may not choose to affiliate with a political party, however, affiliation with a party is required to vote in primary elections.
- 27% of registered voters in Florida are not registered with one of the two major political parties.
Details of state and local primary elections:
- Voters must affiliate with a party to vote in primary elections. However, if all the candidates for an office have the same party affiliation and the winner of the primary election will not face opposition in the general election (i.e. no write-in candidates have qualified), then all registered voters can vote for any of the candidates for that office in the primary election.
- Voter registration closes 29 days before the election.
Campaigns & State Partners
In 2020, Measure 3 for top two open primaries came very close to passing–receiving one of the highest votes of any reform on the ballot anywhere in the country at 57% of the vote (it needed 60%).
One thing unites all Florida voters: the growing frustration with a political system that is broken, rigged, and unfair. Florida disenfranchises more independent voters than any other state in the country. 3.6 million independent voters – 27% of all registered Floridians – are currently barred from participating in the taxpayer funded primary elections. For many Florida voters, the primary election is the only election that matters, with a mere 16% of general election races in the state considered competitive.
With the initiative on the ballot in November 2020, Florida Open Primaries brought together a diverse coalition of Floridians- including grassroots leaders Florida Fair and Open Primaries– to get their message to vote YES on 3 in front of as many Floridians as possible. Our work is not done yet here.
In summer 2023, Florida Open Primaries launched a campaign to end Florida’s write-in loophole. For 20 years, Florida’s “write-in loophole” has been used by Democratic and Republican consultants to shut out millions of Floridians from voting in primaries. It’s shady. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. And we’re working to change it.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE WRITE-IN LOOPHOLE
Florida voters changed the state constitution in 1998 (by an overwhelming 64% of the vote!) to hold open primaries when all candidates running from an election are from one party. But here’s the loophole. If there is a write-in candidate, independents and members of the parties not fielding candidates are shut out of the primary.
Since 2000, 114 sham write ins have been used to trigger closed primaries. Democrats and Republican consultants both use this dirty trick.
This is a fraud. The time has come to close the loophole.
We working to get millions of Floridians to contact their legislators and talk to their friends and families about this effort. The politicians won’t do this unless we apply a lot of pressure.