Write-in candidates close two Manatee County Republican primaries

Bradenton’s Jack D. May Jr. used one word to describe his chances of winning the Republican nomination for the District 1 Manatee County Commission seat: “Low.” 

If May gets elected, the first thing he’ll have to do as commissioner is move to District 1. 

May lives in District 3 and isn’t running to win. He’s running to close the primary as a write-in candidate. 

Florida uses a closed primary system, so only party members can vote in their party’s primary. 

However, Amendment 11 created an exception to the rule in 1998. The amendment allows “any voter to vote in any party's primary election if the winner will have no general election opponent.”

A write-in candidate counts as an opponent. 

May is as frank about his reasons for running as he is about having voted for President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. 

“Pure disclosure,” he said with a laugh. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

May is now the president of the Manatee Patriots, a “politically conservative organization” that “welcomes all Constitution-loving Americans,” according to its website. 

He said the amendment's exception “rubbed him the wrong way” during a past election when the Republican candidate he was rooting for won “by a shoestring” because Democrats and voters with no party affiliation were allowed to cast votes in the primary.

After Commissioner Carol Felts’ death in February left the District 1 seat vacant, nine Republicans and one Democrat entered the race. 

However, running a campaign and qualifying for an election are two different things. 

To run, candidates appoint a campaign treasurer, designate a campaign depository and file two forms with the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections. To qualify, candidates must either collect signatures from 10% of voters in the district or pay a hefty qualifying fee.

When May entered the race May 21, Democratic candidate Sari Lindroos-Valimaki had not qualified to be on November’s ballot yet, so the Republican primary was open to all voters.

Lindroos Valimaki collected 628 out of the required 703 petitions but ran out of time before the qualifying deadline of June 12 at noon. Instead, she paid a $6,714.60 qualifying fee June 11 to “give voters a choice.”

Because Manatee County is “ruby red,” Lindroos-Valimaki said voters outside of the Republican party are decentralized from voting in the primaries because of write-in candidates.

The 'loophole'

As a write-in candidate, May didn’t have to submit petitions or a filing fee. On the other hand, his name won’t be printed on the ballot. To cast a vote for May, voters must write his full name, Jack D. May, Jr., on the ballot for it to count.

Those in favor of opening the primaries when there's no competition amongst parties often refer to the practice as the “write-in candidate loophole.”

The League of Women Voters of Florida is actively advocating to reform the election law. The group is pushing to “establish threshold criteria for write-in candidates that mirror current requirements for announced candidates.” 

“It’s something both parties use if they have control,” said Alice Newlon, government co-chair for the League of Women Voters of Manatee County. “It’s not what our elections should be. We’re electing somebody to represent all of us, and we should all have a say in who is representing us.”

May argues that he’s not preventing anybody from voting. 

“If you can’t produce a candidate, it’s not my fault,” he said. “There’s a legal method to vote in my (Republican) party, but there’s also a legal method to stop voting in my party.”

Since Lindroos-Valimaki qualified, every voter in District 1 will get the chance to vote. 

However, the District 4 race will only be decided by Republicans because Allison Sneed entered as a write-in candidate. 

Only two candidates qualified to be on the ballot: Republicans Glen Gibellina and incumbent Mike Rahn. 

Sneed has made her position clear on Facebook over the past month posting comments such as, “I am with Mike Rahn” and “We do not need communists running Manatee County. What does Glen have to offer?” 

Like May, Sneed has also raised $0 in campaign contributions.

When Rahn was first elected in 2022, his primary was closed by write-in candidates Timothy Norwood and Daniel Hansen.

Commissioner Jason Bearden’s at-large primary was also closed by write-in candidates in 2022, making a third of the current six-member board elected by about half of the county’s voters.

Manatee County has 283,284 registered voters, of whom 141,269 are registered Republicans. 

Newlon warned that the issue only stands to get worse because young voters often prefer not to register with a party.

Gallup reported in January that it’s not just young voters, “A record-high 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025.”

"On one hand, you can open the primary, and on the other hand, it's just as legal to close the primary," May said. "Which one is right, and which one is wrong? That's dealer's choice."