I saw something interesting at the polling station just now. The gal in front of me had her ballot flagged for cross-voting (a.k.a. voting in both Democratic and Republican primaries); for sheriff, the only people running were Republicans, and the gal (she was black, so even in Midland, it was a safe bet to assume she was a Democrat when paired with the story) thought it was OK to cross over in that case.
Not quite, even though that essentially takes away the vote for a Democrat in Midland County who doesn't want to skip their primary (it's open, but you have to stay on one side for the day once you pick). In Florida, that wouldn't be the case, since they would have let her cross over-the rules I remember from living there nearly a decade ago are still up-
If all the candidates for an office have the same party affiliation and the winner of the primary election will not face any opposition in the general election (i.e. no write-in candidates have qualified), then all registered voters can vote for any of the candidates for that particular office in the primary election.
That was especially important in the old South, where the Democratic Party was the party in some areas, so the primary was the election. Midland isn't quite that one-party, but I think it's been a couple of decades since a Democrat has won a county-wide race.
The cross-over gal went back and revoted, and got done after me but before Eileen got done, so I was waiting out front. She was still grumbling about the partial disenfranchisement as she left and I mentioned the Florida rule to her. Cold comfort, but there are places that would have let her have her say.
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