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More than a million registered voters in Florida are being denied the right to decide who represents them in the legislature. And as Mike Vasilinda tells us, another 3 hundred fifty thousand voters won’t have a say on who prosecutes crime in their area.

Registered Democrats and Independents in Jacksonville are out of luck when it comes to electing their state attorney. Four people are running for the job, three Republicans and a write in. And it is that write in’s presence that closed the election to more than 350 thousand Democrats and Independents who can no longer vote.

Elections veteran Ion Sancho calls the exclusion a sham.

“What’s the likelihood of a write-in winning” we asked.

“Near Nil” says Sancho.

The red districts on this map show that virtually every major media market has a legislative race that has been closed by a write in candidate.

It doesn’t cost a dime to become a write-in candidate, and both parties are equally guilty of of recruiting someone to close the process.

The constitution requires open primaries if all candidates are from the same party, but Sancho blames poor drafting that allowed the state to close primaries with a write in.

“The candidate, even a sham candidate is opposition in the fall and thus in fact, we have to really rewrite this provision if you want to get the intended process of an open, universal primary” says the veteran elections official.

Bill Pender was updating his registration when we met him.

“Should they be allowed to keep you from voting for someone?”

I don’t think so. No I think we should be able to vote” says Pender.

But lawmakers have refused again and agains to make a change to the write in process, because as the map shows, they use it to their advantage.

The Florida Supreme has agreed to listen to arguments over the write in exclusion in the Jacksonville State Attorney’s race, but no decision is expected before the August 30th primary.