Amendment 3: Every registered voter should be able to vote

Allowing qualified voters to vote seems like a simple premise.

Unfortunately, that is not how we conduct elections in Florida. For those who wish to vote for their next stateHouse or Senate member or for Governor or Cabinet members, as stunning as it sounds, the truth is that most voters are excluded fromvoting in the taxpayer-funded elections that most often determine the winner.

AllVotersVote is a proposed constitutional amendment that holds to the simple premise that every qualified registered voter in Florida should be allowed to cast a ballot in all public elections. For too long, too many voters— and to be clear, we are talking about those who are already registered to vote— have been legally prohibited from voting for the person who will represent them inTallahassee.

Howcan this be? Florida is one of only nine states in America that has a restrictive process where candidates for office are elected by a tiny sliver of the electorate in closed partisan primaries. And as though to rub salt in thewounds of those excluded voters, their tax dollars are used to hold these closed elections.

The AllVotersVote initiative, Amendment 3, will eliminate Florida’s closed partisan primary system and will end chronic gridlock and hyperpartisanship by forcing politicians to answer to every voter they represent, not just that tiny sliver fromeither the extreme left or the extreme right.

Consider this: Today, more than 3.8 million Florida voters have been effectively disenfranchised by this system because they choose to belong to neither of the major political parties. By selecting, for example, “No Party Affiliation” (NPA), those registered voters are legally forbidden from voting in the primary elections that almost always determine who will represent them inTallahassee. This is patently unfair and should be reason enough to vote for theAll

VotersVote initiative. But— and this is vital — they aren’t the only ones who can truthfully exclaim, “No taxation without representation!” In nearly every state legislative district, those who choose to belong to a major political party are also excluded if they happen to live in a district where they are not amember of the dominant party.

Why should the right to vote be reserved only for those who belong to a political party? Andwhy should those voters belonging to a party also be excluded fromhaving a say in the outcome just because they are not in the majority party in their district?

Our system makes no sense, and denying registered voters the right to cast a meaningful ballot has had profoundly negative effects on our democracy.

The AllVotersVote amendment simply says that in taxpayer-funded public elections, all voters are allowed to vote. Candidates appear on a common ballot and the top-two vote getters appear on the general election ballot where voters, once again, get the chance to choose the person whowill represent them in our state’s capitol.

The top-two system is nothing new— it is already in place in Florida for over 400 municipalities and counties, and for judicial and special district races. In fact, more people are already elected in Florida using a top-two vote-getter system than for our legislative races. It is common andwellaccepted by voters. More importantly, it is a proven success because those candidates cannot hide in partisan silos and must answer to every voter they represent. As a result, they are not only more responsive to their voters, they are able to put principle before party and put the interest of everyone above the narrowpartisan interests of the extreme fringes of either party.

That iswhywe ask voters to learn as much as they can about the AllVotersVote initiative and vote “yes” on Amendment 3 to ensure that they, and every other voter, will not be excluded fromtaxpayer funded elections. To learn more please visit www.AllVotersVote.org.