Eleventh Circuit Upholds Florida’s Closed Primary System

Posted on by March 11, 2025

On February 11, the Eleventh Circuit upheld Florida’s closed primary system. Polelle v Florida Secretary of State, 22-14031. The plaintiff is an independent voter in Sarasota County, which is an overwhelmingly Republican county. He argued that his right to vote is being denied because he could not cast a vote in the Republican primary, and the winner of the Republican primary always wins in Sarasota County. The decision mentions that only Republicans have won Sarasota County elections for county office ever since 1968.

The vote is 3-0, but the judges disagreed with each other on whether the plaintiff had standing. Here is the decision, which is by Judge Rosin Rosenbaum, an Obama appointee. It says the plaintiff has standing. Judge Nancy Abudu, a Biden appointee, agreed on standing. Judge Gerald Tjoflat, Ford appointee, argued that the plaintiff did not have standing.

The opinion is quite long, because of the standing issue. The majority opinion has 55 pages (mostly on standing) before the main issue is even discussed. The merits portion has another 24 pages. Judge Abudu wrote a five-page concurrence. Judge Tjoflat wrote 27 pages on why he believes the plaintiff has no standing.

Comments

Eleventh Circuit Upholds Florida’s Closed Primary System — 18 Comments

  2. HOW MANY POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS IN ALL STATES ARE DE FACTO ONE PARTY TYRANT REGIMES ???

  3. AZ666 is the handle of the spambot that is screaming
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  5. Standing is incredibly important because once a plant off establishes standing then the court has to perform the strict scrutiny or balanced scrutiny standard for questions of voting rights or political associational rights.

    The circuit panel did the full test but didn’t find the closed primary scheme unconstitutionally burdensome. Because the relief seems to be in conflict with caselaw (Nader) on the First Amendment rights of political parties (which is odd because closed primary laws also are forced on political parties without their input).

    Maybe the court would look friendlier on these claims if it came from a political party rather than an individual voter

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  12. Commie and fascist brains in the USA support the so called Democratic Party, better known as the Demon Rats or the DP.

  17. National Law Journal article on the 11th circuit decision on the Polelle constitutional challenge: https://archive.ph/zvAfw

    Summary: “Florida’s reasons for holding closed primaries—in part to promote political parties’ continuing viability—justify the burdens on Polelle’s constitutional rights”.

    Of course, from the perspective of any political party in Florida (that’s not the Republican Party) would say that the laws have failed in promoting any viable competitive electoral system in the state.

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