Proposal to open primaries to all Florida voters defeated.

Former Bar President Bill Schifino's effort to open Florida's primary system to all voters and provide for a "top two" system for selecting general election candidates apparently ended February 1 when it failed in its second Constitution Revision Commission committee.

Initially, Proposal 62 would have allowed independent voters to pick a partisan ballot to use in primary elections. When that ran into headwinds in the Ethics and Elections Committee, Schifino modified the amendment to the top-two system that is used in some form in five states, including California and Washington.

In that system, all candidates for an office appear on one primary ballot that is open to all registered voters. The top two vote getters--regardless of party affiliation--appear on the general election ballot.

Schifino said the current system disenfranchises 3.4 million Floridians who are registered with no party affiliation (NPAs), independents who could outnumber Republicans or Democrats in Florida within six years. He added that when Washington and California went to that form of open primary, their primary voter participation rates rose dramatically, to 48 percent in Washington and more than 50 percent in California, compared to 24 percent in Florida.

But despite several speakers expressing support for the proposal, including citing polls showing more than 70 percent voter support for some form of open primary, P-62 failed to get a single vote when the General Provisions Committee considered it on the next to the last day of CRC committee meetings. Only proposals that cleared all their committees of reference by February 2 were scheduled to be considered when...