Q. Ballots are flowing into election supervisors’ offices already in this month’s primary elections. And in Florida, a closed-primary state, several of our races are closed to voters of one political party only because the winner will go on to face a qualified write-candidate in the general election. (Elections stay open to all when candidates are all of the same party.)

That has Jacksonville Today reader Gina K. wondering what it means to “run” for office as a write-in candidate. She figured the writing-in was solely up to voters.

A. When you cast your ballot in the November general elections, you’ll find a number of blank spaces allowing you to write in your candidate of choice. Many voters who exercise that option do it as a protest vote, like “Anyone else,” “Mickey Mouse,” or “Tim Tebow.”

But Florida election law also allows candidates to formally run as write-ins instead of qualifying for ink on a ballot.

As Clay County Supervisor of Elections Chris Chambless explains, that ensures only qualified candidates can win (“qualified” as in they filed the right papers; their fitness for office is another question entirely). So, if Tim Tebow somehow got enough votes to serve on the Clay County Commission, he wouldn’t be elected unless he’d filed as a write-in with Chambless’ office. 

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While “there are still requirements,” he says, write-in candidates don’t face the same qualification bar as other candidates.

To qualify to appear on the ballot, a candidate must submit a petition with a number of signatures equal to at least 1% of the population of the district they’re running to represent, or pay a qualifying fee that includes 3% of the office’s salary, as well as other fees.

Write-ins skip those steps, but they still have to meet minimum requirements for the office, if there are any, like residency or age. 

The idea behind the write-in option, Chambless says, is that anyone has access to run for office regardless of whether they have enough money.

But what often happens, government watchdogs say, is that people run as write-ins only to close primary contests to try to benefit certain other candidates, but not because they want to win.

It’s been happening since the late 1990s, Florida Integrity Research Director Ben Wilcox tells Jacksonville Today, ever since the state determined that even though a write-in candidate’s name doesn’t appear on the ballot, they qualify as another option for voters. 

Wilcox says, “It could easily be fixed by the Legislature, but they’re not going to do it because both parties like the write-in candidate loophole,” he says. “They like having closed primaries.”

Duval and Clay counties don’t have any municipal-level races closed by write-in candidates, but several races in St. Johns County — the race for sheriff, for one — have candidates all of one party plus a single write-in option. That means the 122,606 registered Republicans have the opportunity to decide those races but more than 100,053 other voters are on the sidelines.

Write-in candidates have filed to run in races all over the state, including state legislative races.

“Anecdotally, I’m hearing from voters who are really frustrated, because they’re being shut out of a primary election because they’re a member of the other party, or they’re no-party-affiliated voters and they’re being disenfranchised,” he says. “So it’s happening all over Florida.”