Another election, another chance for write-in candidates to disenfranchise Florida voters

If you ever wondered what it feels like to single-handedly deny thousands of people the ability to cast a vote, just ask Janette Martinez.

She’s one of this year’s poster children for why Florida needs to reform the rules for write-in candidates, who have the state’s permission to legally disenfranchise voters nearly every election cycle.

Martinez is running for Osceola County Commission as a write-in candidate in a district that covers the northwest part of the county. It’s the same district where her friend, incumbent Commissioner Peggy Choudhry, is running in a primary against two other Democrats.

That’s right, they’re friends. Choudhry said so in an interview with the Sentinel’s editorial board. When Choudhry launched her re-election effort in April 2019, Martinez was listed as part of the host committee, or “spirit team.”

But because Martinez qualified as a write-in candidate for the general election this fall, that disqualified the majority of voters in that district — including almost 11,000 Republicans and 17,000 independents — from casting a ballot, closing what otherwise should have been an open primary for voters.

Immediately north, in an Orange County Commission seat, 20-year-old write-in candidate Hannah Burns is playing a slightly different game.

It’s a non-partisan race, but Burns’ write-in candidacy ensured the two real candidates, incumbent Betsy VanderLey and challenger Nicole Wilson, wouldn’t meet head-to-head this fall when turnout is expected to be sky-high.

That helps VanderLey in a couple of ways. It gives Wilson less time to campaign and build name recognition. Plus, in a deep blue county like Orange — even in a nonpartisan race — a Democrat like Wilson would have been more likely to benefit from a big turnout during the presidential race this fall than a Republican like VanderLey, who recently spoke to a gathering of Republicans about the need to keep her “conservative ideology” on the County Commission.

Burns’ stepfather is VanderLey’s friend and supporter Scott Boyd, a former county commissioner who copped to the scheme last month.

Boyd doesn’t care, as long as it helps his friend get re-elected. He and Tim Loucks also are last-minute write-in candidates for property appraiser, which closed the Democratic primary to nearly a half-million Republicans and independents registered in Orange County.

Write-ins rarely bother to raise money or campaign. Martinez hasn’t reported raising a nickel. Burns got $50 from David Rankin, who is campaign treasurer for her opponent, VanderLey. Rankin also gave Boyd 50 bucks. Loucks has reported zero contributions. One of the two candidates who qualified as write-ins for Orange County Sheriff — locking Republicans and independents out of that Democratic primary, too — gave his own campaign $100. The other has reported raising nothing.

It’s easy to become a write-in candidate.

You don’t have to pay a qualifying fee or collect any signatures. That’s why so many election manipulators run as write-ins. Others might have purer intent but their candidacies are doomed from the start. There’s not a single recorded instance of a write-in candidate winning an election in Florida.

Voters tried to end closed primaries in 1998 by passing a state constitutional amendment. It said that if just one party is offering candidates in a race, then everyone gets to vote in the primary. That meant the ultimate winner wouldn’t be chosen by just one party’s voters.

The amendment got 64% of the vote. But with the state’s tacit blessing, write-in candidates have exploited a loophole that lets them undermine the voters’ will.

In a better world, lawmakers would step in and stop the gamesmanship. It wouldn’t be hard. They could pass a law saying primaries will remain open to all voters if the only other candidate in the general election race is a write-in. If that ran into constitutional problems, they could put an amendment on the ballot that would end write-in mischief. Voters already have demonstrated their liking for amendments that expand the ability to vote.

But Florida’s Legislature is just fine with these cynical ploys.

The reason is simple: It preserves the parties’ power. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are motivated to change anything because the system works to their advantage by keeping the other party out of primaries.

Both parties, in fact, tried unsuccessfully to keep a new amendment off the ballot this fall. The All Voters Vote amendment would change state elections so that all candidates in a race are lumped together in the primary, with the top two vote-getters moving to the general election. It might be a Democrat and a Republican, or two Republicans, or a Democrat and a Libertarian, or any other combination of candidates.

In any event, it would thwart bogus write-in candidates from closing state election primaries to Florida voters. Unfortunately, the amendment wouldn’t apply to federal or local elections, but at least it’s a start.

Maybe if the amendment passes — it’s Amendment 3 on your November ballot — the Legislature will take the hint and apply that solution to other races. Just kidding. Of course they won’t. It’ll likely take more citizen-generated constitutional amendments to finally end state-sanctioned voter disenfranchisement.

We’re looking forward to the day when candidates like Janette Martinez no longer possess the power to casually stop thousands from voting in elections.