Closed primary

Definition

A closed primary limits voting to registered members of that party. Independent or unaffiliated voters, and members of other parties, cannot participate unless they re-register in advance of the deadline.¹

Why it matters

Closed primaries hand nomination decisions to the narrower slice of voters who registered with a party, often a smaller and more ideologically committed group than the general electorate. In Florida, candidates have used a write-in loophole, recruiting a token write-in candidate with no real chance of winning, to keep an otherwise all-one-party race closed to the independents who would otherwise get a universal primary ballot.

Seen in the wild

Florida runs closed primaries statewide, so only registered Republicans and Democrats vote in their respective party's primary.² A 1998 constitutional amendment opens the primary to all voters when only one party fields candidates, but reporting through the 2024 cycle documented write-in candidates being recruited specifically to block that opening.³

Related

• Crossover voting
• Top-two primary
• Jungle primary
• Primary systems explained

Sources

1. NCSL, "State Primary Election Systems" (table), 2024. source ↩

2. Florida Department of State, Division of Elections, "Closed Primary Election," 2024. source ↩

3. Click Orlando, "Florida is a closed primary state. Why that matters for primary elections in 2024," 2024. source ↩