Florida Primary: Where Are the Independents?

Note: It's too bad that Rob Richie and FairVote.org support closed partisan primaries. This position goes against the increasing ranks of independent voters who want and need to have a say in the first round of voting.

FLORIDA PRIMARY

• Romney sweeps most groups in Florida vote (By Tom Curry, msnbc.com National Affairs Writer) But in Florida, 18 percent of the electorate Tuesday called themselves independents. Romney won 41 percent of them, while Gingrich won 27 percent.
• From msnbc exit poll:
  No matter how you voted today, do you usually think of yourself as a:
  Category     Gingrich     Paul     Romney     Santorum     % Total
  Democrat     -     -     -     -     2
  Republican     33     5     48     13     80
  Independent or something else     27     16     41     15     18
• Independent voters vital to general election win in Sunshine State (Written by John McCarthy, FLORIDA TODAY)
• Florida should adopt open primary system (Written by Francis J. Merceret, LETTER Florida Today) Florida should adopt open primaries such as New Hampshire recently held. If the parties don’t like that, they can fund private elections or hold party-funded caucuses, as is done in Iowa or other states.
• Florida's closed primary system coming under fire (By Jim Ash Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers) "I would like the parties to have a closed nominating system, but we don't want the taxpayers to have to pay for them," FairVote. Org executive director Rob Richie said.