POLK COUNTY, Fla. — There is a movement to reshape how Florida sets up its primary elections. Ben Graffam of Lakeland has been a registered independent voter for thirty years.
“It was party against party. It was like you put on a shirt or a jacket, and you became somebody's enemy, and I didn’t like that,” said Graffam.
He feels disenfranchised when it comes to primary elections in Florida.
“You do feel left out. You feel unconsidered in the process,” Graffam said.
Since Florida is a closed primary state, Graffam is prohibited from voting in the primaries. In closed primaries, voters may only vote for candidates in the party they are registered in.
Lori Edwards, Supervisor of Elections for Polk County, said closed primaries have some of the lowest voter turnout.
“The Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., has studied this. States that have open primaries have 4% more turnout in their primary elections than the states that have closed primaries,” said Edwards.
Florida has 3,528,807 voters who are not affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic party.
“I’ve watched the trend, and more people in recent years register as no party affiliation or independent, than register as either Democrat or Republican. In other words, it is the fastest-growing segment of our population,” Edwards said.
This is partly why the group Open Primaries is pushing Florida lawmakers to open closed primaries to independent voters. In 2020, 57% of Floridians voted in favor of a nonpartisan primary.
"There is a huge level of support among Floridians for changing the system, giving all voters more freedom, and allowing independent voters to fully participate,” said John Opdycke, president of Open Primaries.
Opdycke said eliminating party control forces candidates to seek out policies with broader support and work across the aisle.
“You still have liberals and conservatives, but the incentives for them to work together on issues where they can find common ground go up dramatically. That’s what we've seen in every state that has a nonpartisan primary,” he said.
Supporters of closed primaries argue that sabotage from non-members is a real issue.
“You want to keep the primary closed because you keep it pure, meaning the people who vote for you are not people coming in to spoil as they did in South Carolina and throw votes toward other candidates,” said Jay Edwin Benton, University of South Florida political science professor.
Independent voters just want to have a meaningful vote.
“We’re not empowering a lot of voters that choose to be independent, and that’s quite a lot of voters in Florida,” Graffam said.
