Florida voting - all fucked up again

[Hugabear]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-129electionday,0,6968764,print.story

<snip>
In northern Coral Springs, near the Sawgrass Expressway and Coral Ridge Drive, David Nirenberg arrived to vote as an independent. Nevertheless, he said poll workers insisted he choose a party ballot.

"He said to me, 'Are you Democrat or Republican?' I said, 'Neither, I am independent.' He said, 'Well, you have to pick one,''' Nirenberg said.

In Florida, only those who declare a party are allowed to cast a vote in that party's presidential primary.
<snip>

This is just plain embarrassing. You'd figure that after 2000, Florida of all states would have gotten its act together. Yet here we are, eight years later, and we're still acting like a third-world country when it comes to voting. I live in this state, and it's sad to see this shit still going on!

[Dinger]

1. It Must Be Forbidden for The Candidates To Talk About This

Maybe they don't think its a big deal, or maybe . . . .

[MNDemNY]

2. It's a closed primary. Many are. What's your Problem?

[Hugabear]

3. Did you read the post?

I know it's a closed primary. The problem is with ill-informed poll workers telling independent voters that they HAVE to choose either the Democratic or Republican ballot.

Sure, in this particular instance it got straightened out. But the article shows that poll workers had received instructions to give everyone either a Democratic or GOP ballot. One just has to wonder how many others slipped through?

[MNDemNY]

5. What other option? an "independent" ballot?

[robbedvoter]

7. Are there "independent primaries?" Primaries belong to parties.

[MNDemNY]

8. That's my point.

[Hugabear]

15. YES - there are other options

There is a non-partisan ballot for those voting who don't belong to either parties. There are issues on the Florida ballot that don't pertain to the primaries, such as the property tax amendment.

[Marrah_G]

17. You realize that you can take say a Dem ballot and only fill out the parts you want right?

Just because the ballot say Dem doesn't mean anything.............

Why the heck are you so upset?

[Hugabear]

19. Okay, let me explain...

It's a CLOSED primary. Meaning that you have to be a registered party voter to vote in either the Democratic or Republican primaries. IMHO, this is how it should be - Democrats should decide who the Democratic nominee is, Republicans should decide who theirs is, etc.

If you're not affiliated with any party, there are usually other local and state issues that you can vote for.

My problem is that poll workers were told that voters had to choose either the Democratic or Republican ballots, even if they were not affiliated with either party. This is in clear violation of the closed primary rules.

[Marrah_G]

16. I am confused- are there "Independant" ballots in the Dem/Rep primaries?

I am truly baffled as to you why you are upset.

After reading more responses I think much of the confusion is coming from your post not being very clear. If you could clarify things it would help a great deal.

[Ganja Ninja]

4. Rules are rules.

If you want to be an independent then be an independent. If you are an independent then you have no business voting in the primary of a particular party you don't belong to. If you want to vote in a party primary then declare yourself. I don't see the problem.

[Hutzpa]

9. I thought everyone should be allowed to vote? n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

12. Everyone that belongs to a political party should be allowed to

vote in that party's primary. If your not part of that party then what do you care who they run in a general election?

And let me just clarify something here for you. As far as I'm concerned the Democratic party has disenfranchised the Democratic voters of Florida and Michigan. That being said, what's done is done. You can't come back after the fact when some candidates have campaigned and some haven't and decide you want to count those primaries. I don't agree with Hillary's tactic of trying to go back after the fact and count those primary delegates.

Still those votes will register in the general public's perception even though they will not and should not count at the convention.

[robbedvoter]

6. In most states you have to be registered to a party to vote in its primary

designed to orevent dirty tricks - still ongoing in the South.

[BlueManDude]

10. I think the large amount of early voting hurts McCain - maybe wishful thinking.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Of all the problems they had, that one is the silliest...

and not a problem at all in closed primaries. Here in my ED we were throwing people out all day in the last primary because there was only one race-- for the Conservative line for town supervisor. Lots of people came in to vote out of habit and were disappointed because there was no major party primary race and they couldn't vote.

More to the point is how did one vote on the tax proposition if not a party member?

[bluedog]

13. the Indie ballot in Fl......

has just the tax ballots on it....they can vote on that....not in the Presidential races.......

[TreasonousBastard]

14. OK, so there was actually an Indie ballot for that. n/t

[ElsewheresDaughter]

18. New york state has the same policy for as long as I have been voting