Supporters of a top-two system will attempt to persuade the Florida Constitution Revision Commission to put a top-two proposal on the November 2018 Florida ballot. They have already hired Public Policy Polling to conduct a telephone poll. The final question, #15, asks, “Do you think the Florida Constitution Revision Commission should place an open primary with a single ballot for all federal and state offices below president, and including all candidates regardless of party before Florida voters?”
Top-two supporters try to deflect the respondent’s attention away from the fact that their system limits voter choice in the general election to just two candidates. They deliberately use the term “open primary” when they mean “top-two primary.” “Open primary” has been defined since 1907 as a system in which each party has its own nominees and its own primary ballot, but any voter can choose any party’s primary ballot. By contrast, top-two systems abolish traditional primaries and replace them with a popularity contest held months before the election itself. Then, only the two most popular candidates are permitted to run in the general election itself.
Top-two supporters are funded by billionaires Laura and John Arnold of Houston, Texas. Most of the activists in the leading top-two organization, which is called “Open Primaries” are veterans of the New Alliance Party that existed 1982 through 1994, and which ran Lenora Fulani for president in 1988 and 1992.
The Florida Constitution Revision Commission operates every twenty years in Florida. The Commission holds hearings around the state to listen to ideas of what possible changes should be made to the Florida Constitution. The Commission held its first meeting in Orlando on March 29. Here is a news account of the meeting.
