103,222 Registered Voters Disenfranchised: Phantom Write-ins qualifiy for District 2 & 4 seats; St. Johns County Commission Republican primary to be closed. (SAR)

Who are GRAHAM KELLAR McGEE (District 2) and MICHAEL C. LANZA (District 4)?

Two Phantom Write-in candidates have disenfranchised 103,222 St. Johns County residents: 50,339 Democrats and 52,883 No Party Affiliation voters, preventing them from voting in what would have been a University Primary. 

We've reported on Phantom Write-ins on this blog.  Florida journalists have reported them

Who benefits?  

Incumbents who will do anything to cling to power, even winking while they benefit from Phantom Write-ins. disenfranchising 103,222 St. Johns County voters.

Phantom Write-in candidates pay no fee, duck questions and like a turtle on a fence post, you know that somebody put them there.  Phantom Write-in candidates are there for a reason: they close what a 1998 Constitutional Amendment intended to be Universal Primaries, whenever all of the candidates running for an office are of one party, with no opposition.   

Partisan Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and the courts agreed that a 1998 Florida Constitutional Amendment that "opposition" includes Phantom Wrie-in candidates.

They twisted our Florida Constitution so that it does not provide equal ballot access.  

We voters thought that universal primaries would be held when all of the candidates for a local office were unopposed and  from one party.  

Once Voodoo Voting Rules were introduced by Jeb Bush & Co. to benefit certain political powers, including his dumber brother, George W. Buch, Florida went into overdrive disenfranchising voters.  

Florida empowers any jackass to file to run as a write-in, do nothing, and disenfranchise voters.  Millions of Florida voters have been disenfranchised by Phantom Write-in Candidates.  Sick.  Thank you, Katharine Harris and Mark Herron: your handiwork is repugnant to our democracy.

21st century stabs at Florida constitutional amendments on voting did not touch this outrage.

Republicans benefit in North Florida, which is majority Republican.

Democrats benefit in South Florida, which is majority Democratic.

The two-party system loses in both places, with many officials unopposed for re-election.

Our Founders would have called them "factions," as in Federalist No. 10,

 

Write-ins qualify for District 2 & 4 seats; St. Johns County Commission Republican primary to be closed

Two commission primaries now to be closed to non-Republican voters

Sheldon Gardner

St. Augustine Record

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A write-in candidate has qualified to run for the St. Johns County Commission District 4 seat, shutting non-Republican voters out of what would have been a universal primary if no other non-Republican had filed. 

The candidate, Michael Lanza, was not available for comment on Friday morning. He answered the phone and said he was heading into a meeting, then the call was disconnected. 

Before Lanza filed, only incumbent Commissioner Jeremiah Blocker and Krista Keating-Joseph had qualified to run. They are both Republicans. Lanza has no party affiliation, according to St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections records. 

Republican files as write-in:St. Johns County commission District 2 race closed to non-Republicans

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In a situation where only one party fields candidates for an office, state law calls for that party’s primary – normally limited only to party members – to be open to all voters, so all constituents have a right to vote for a representative. However, if an independent, third-party or write-in candidate joins the race, the party primary remains closed to non-Republican voters.

A write-in candidate doesn't have to pay a filing fee or election assessment to qualify. A write-in candidate isn't entitled to have his or her name on the ballot, but Florida law requires a blank space to be provided on the general election ballot so people who want to vote for the candidate can write in that person's name. 

The deadline to qualify for the Aug. 23 primary was noon on Friday.

Another write-in candidate, Graham McGee, qualified this week for the District 2County Commission seat, which closed that primary. He is a registered Republican. 

District 4 candidates and the money they've raised

• Commissioner Jeremiah R. Blocker, Republican. Qualified. $213,593.
• Krista Keating-Joseph, Republican. Qualified. $10,480.
• Michael C. Lanza, write-in. Qualified. $0.