Florida holds primaries this year on August 24. In the 33rd State House district, near Orlando, there will be a Libertarian Party primary. This will be the first government-sponsored primary for any party in Florida history, other than for Democratic and Republican Party primaries. See this story. The two candidates are Franklin Perez and Ellen Paul.
Until 2007, Florida only held primaries for parties with registration greater than 5% of the state total. In 2007, the legislature changed the law and said all qualified parties should nominate by primary. However, Florida does not actually hold a primary for any party unless it has a contest. Florida doesn’t permit write-ins in partisan primaries, and even though Florida has 35 qualified parties, none of them ever had a contested nomination contest until this year, in the Libertarian Party, in that one state House district.
Government-administered primaries began in Florida in 1913. The law said only parties that had polled at least 5% of the vote in the last election could have a primary. The Progressive Party and the Socialist Party were eligible for primaries in 1914, but probably they didn’t actually have primaries because they had no contests for any nomination. In 1921 the law was changed to say that only parties that had polled 30% of the vote in the last election could have primaries. In 1939 the law was changed to eliminate the vote test, and to say primaries were only for parties that had registration of 5%, the law that was in effect until 2007.