Trident Analysis: Two million Florida voters are being disenfranchised by write-in, ghost candidates

About two weeks after Sandra Maddox qualified to run for county commission in Santa Rosa County, a campaign sign for the frontrunner in her own race – incumbent Republican James Calkins –  oddly popped up in her own yard. 

“The sign was right in front of her mailbox,” said Diane Warner, a retiree in the area who spends her free time investigating elections. “I drove out there, and I just stopped by and took pictures.” 

The connection between Maddox and her on-paper political opponent goes deeper than just yard signs. The Florida Trident learned that Maddox’s son, Roger Belanger, did work for Calkins’ campaign, ostensibly in league against his own mother, who is 80-years-old and has been almost entirely absent from the race.

Belanger received $5,000 from Calkins for “advertising,” campaign finance records show. In 2022, Calkins described Belanger as a “good friend” in a social media post. 

“It’s incredulous,” said Warner, a Republican voter. “They walk right up to the line of slimy, and it gets old.”

Maddox’s candidacy may seem absurd on its face, but her entrance as a write-in for District 3 had a profound impact. If Calkins had run alone as an unopposed Republican for the seat, the primary would have been open under Florida law, allowing Democrats and and independents to vote. When Maddox filed to run, however, it closed the primary to everyone except Republicans, disenfranchising everyone else. 

The bad news for non-Republican Santa Rosa County voters doesn’t end there: Write-in candidates have closed all three county commission races there, meaning some 52,000 registered voters in the county will not have a voice in who is representing them.  Maddox, Belanger and Calkins did not respond to requests for comment from the Trident. 

The problem is prevalent statewide. A Florida Trident analysis of candidate filing information and voter registration data found that more than 2 million voters across Florida have been shut out from at least one state or local election this year because of the loophole in the Florida Constitution that allows write-in candidates to close primaries. 

“They’ve been used as ghost candidates,” explained Ben Wilcox, research director for Integrity Florida, a nonpartisan research institute and government watchdog. “It’s a tactic that both parties use.” 

“Ghost candidates” are candidates who aren’t serious about winning an election, but want to influence the outcome. Wilcox explained there are two types of these candidates: write-in candidates who run to close primary elections and candidates whose names appear on the ballot in an effort to siphon votes from another candidate.

“One thing that both of those types of candidates have in common,” said Wilcox, “is that they’re being used to manipulate elections.” 

None of the write-in candidates in Santa Rosa have raised or spent any money on their campaigns, and most don’t live in the district they’re running to represent. 

Those are “red flags” of possible ghost candidates, explained Wilcox. “For the most part, they don’t campaign; they’re just not serious candidates.” 

Florida is ‘infested’ with ghost candidates in 2024 

Write-in candidates have closed at least one local race in 20 counties across Florida. Write-in candidates have closed three legislative races in Duval County, including Senate District 5 and House Districts 13 and 14. 

“Florida is infested with ghost candidates,” Wilcox said. “They’re everywhere in local races [and state] legislative races. It’s just a real problem.” 

The Trident reviewed candidate filing information and voter registration data from the state Division of Elections and all 67 county supervisor of elections’ websites in the state. The findings show write-in candidates have disenfranchised 2 million registered voters in these counties: Brevard, Charlotte, Collier, Duval, Escambia, Flagler, Gadsden, Hernando, Indian River, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Putnam, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sumter and Walton. 

“They never win,” Wilcox explained. “Somebody would have to do a really extensive campaign to get the word out that they want voters to write in their name so that they would actually have a chance to win that election.” 

The open primary system was introduced in an amendment to the state constitution that voters approved  in 1998. 

“The hope was that it would reduce the extremes on either side,” Wilcox said, adding that the amendment didn’t fulfill its purpose. “The constitutional amendment did not address write-in candidates.” 

In 2000, the state Division of Elections adopted a rule that required closed primaries whenever a write-in candidate qualified to run for an election. “The Legislature didn’t take any action,” Wilcox said. 

Ever since the rule was adopted, “we’ve seen write-in candidates in Florida used as ghost candidates to close primary elections,” Wilcox said. “Both Democrats and Republicans like to have their primaries closed. They want their voters to decide who the representative is going to be.” 

Efforts to eliminate the write-in candidate loophole have failed 

In 2018, the Florida Constitutional Revision Commission considered a proposal to simply close the write-in candidate loophole, but it was rejected and never went before voters. 

“They weren’t able to get a majority vote to put that on the ballot,” Wilcox said. “That’s one solution to this whole problem.” 

The proposal would’ve required open primaries whenever a write-in candidate enters a race that has only one party’s candidates on the ballot and no other general election opposition. A 2017 bipartisan measure in the Florida Legislature proposing the same solution died in committee without getting a single vote. 

Wilcox says lawmakers could deter ghost candidates by making it harder for those candidates to qualify to run. Unlike candidates whose names appear on the ballot, write-in candidates aren’t required to pay filing fees or collect signatures. If they faced those same requirements, it would likely curb the number of write-in candidates, he explained. 

The only way voters can get around the write-in candidate loophole is to switch their party affiliation before the primary election. 

After recently moving to Santa Rosa County, Ilana Porzecanski couldn’t vote in any 2022 state or local elections because she was a Democrat, shut out of Republican primaries due to write-in candidates. 

“Much to my surprise, there were these write-in ghost candidates who had not run a campaign, had not picked up any money for their campaign, and were just there to close the primary,” she said. 

This year, Porzecanski switched her party affiliation after finding out that write-in candidates had closed the primary in three county commission races. 

“I have chosen to change my party affiliation to Republican, so that I can access these important local elections,” she said. “I knew I couldn’t just be upset about it — I had to do something.”