Some 800,000 people have voted so far in FL presidential primary; no state primary for Dems

At the Leon County Courthouse in Florida's capital, voters could vote early in person or by dropping their ballots in a drop box. Credit: Diane Rado

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Early voting ended Sunday for Florida’s presidential preference primary that takes place on Tuesday, March 19 — an election where Democrats and independently registered voters can only vote for local candidates in a handful of counties after the state party chose not to hold a Democratic primary election with President Joe Biden as their only candidate.

A total of 796,222 voters had cast ballots as of Monday morning, according to the Florida Division of Elections website. A total of 564,589 have voted by mail, with 231,633 voting early at the polls.

Of those who have participated, 730,587 votes have been cast by registered Republicans, 45,143 by Democrats, and 3,645 by either Non-Party-Affiliated voters or those registered with third parties.

Though former President Donald Trump is now the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party after amassing the more than 1,215 delegates needed to win the presidential nomination last week, he is on the ballot here in Florida, along with six other Republican candidates who are no longer in the race. They are: Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson and Ryan L. Binkley.

The Florida Democratic Party chose last fall to place only Joe Biden’s name on the March 19 ballot, a controversial decision that was denounced by the other candidates running against Biden, and led to one Democratic voter to file a lawsuit against the party (the case was ultimately thrown out by a federal judge in January).

Florida election law says that if a political party has only one presidential candidate, that candidate’s name will not be placed on the ballot, which is why there’s no Democratic presidential primary.

While FDP officials have defended their decision, saying that they also chose not to have presidential primary elections when Democratic incumbent presidents like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were running in 1996 and 2012, respectively.

There are local elections taking place in Orange, Palm Beach and Pinellas counties on Tuesday. There are also two special district elections taking place in Sarasota County, according to the state Division of Elections.

The biggest race in Pinellas County on Tuesday is the Clearwater mayoral election between attorney Bruce Rector and City Council member Kathleen Beckman.

While officially these contests are considered nonpartisan, party affiliation is very much a part of this election.

A review of campaign contributions in that race shows that Republican affiliated groups are strongly backing Rector in the race, while the Florida Democratic Party has made a financial contribution to Beckman’s candidacy. Both local parties have also sent out email messages to their members about the candidates that they are backing in that contest.

“It has become incredibly partisan,” says Jennifer Griffith, the chair of the Pinellas County Democratic Party. She adds that she is “very concerned” that many local Democrats think that because there is no presidential primary election, that they can’t (or simply aren’t going to) participate in the municipal election in Clearwater, which is open to all registered voters.

As of Monday morning, 77% of those voting in Pinellas County so far are Republican, and just 14% are Democratic.

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