Thomas Rosilio said he felt like his voice couldn’t be heard as an independent in a closed primary state.
Being a closed primary state means residents must be registered to their party in order to vote for their representatives, said TJ Pyche, the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections office’s spokesperson. Registering to a party by the deadline can be difficult for some people, such as Rosilio, who had an issue with his registration entry because Florida College Democrats forgot to change it, he said.
Rosilio, a 20-year-old UF English sophomore, has been registered as an independent since he was 18 years old. He believes Florida should be an open primary state.
“With Florida’s closed primaries, it feels like I don’t have a lot of choices because I look at the ballot and see I can really only vote for the city commission. And I can't vote for specific candidates I really like in parties,” Rosilio said.
Pyche said the office wants residents to vote, and they consistently see the same problem: people forgetting to change their party affiliation.
“That's not something we enjoy seeing,” Pyche said. “We really encourage people to make a plan for future elections.”
Since Jan. 1, a total of 3,289 voters changed their party affiliation in Alachua County by the registration deadline, Pyche said.
Colin Solomon, a 19-year-old UF English sophomore, used to live in Michigan — an open primary state. He changed his affiliation from Republican to Democrat for this election because he’d have more of a voice since Trump, the incumbent, would likely be his only option.
“The closed primary dissuades us and creates more polarization among the parties,” Solomon said. “There's no room to be an independent voter in Florida.”
Contact Anna Wilder at awilder@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @anna_wilder.
A woman votes in the presidential primary election at the the Summit View Church of the Nazarene Tuesday, March 10, 2020, in Kansas City, Mo. The polling place served two precincts as voters who were scheduled to vote at a nearby senior living facility were directed to vote at the church after the facility backed out due to coronavirus concerns. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Anna Wilder is a second-year journalism major and the criminal justice reporter. She's from Melbourne, Florida, and she enjoys being outdoors or playing the viola when she's not writing.
