Posted at Ballot Access News:
This year, five registered Greens ran for the Florida legislature. They were all individuals who were completely unknown to the Green Party leadership. But because the Florida law was changed in 2007 to provide that all parties (not just the parties with registration of 5%, meaning the Democrats and Republicans) nominate by primary, it was easy for anyone to register into any party and file for that party’s primary, regardless of the wishes of a minor party’s leadership.
News stories said that all five Greens had only been registered in the Green Party for a few weeks before they filed. Some had previously been registered Republican, some independent, and some had not even been previously registered. Reporters suspected that Republicans had recruited them to run so as to increase the chances that Republicans would win the legislative seats in question. That may or may not be true. In any event, none of the 5 Greens seem to have changed the identity of the winners in those 5 races. In three of the races (State Senate districts 25 and 27, and State House district 44) the Republican nominee won over 50% of the total vote. In the other two (State House districts 69 and 81), although no one received as much as 50% of the total vote, Democrats won both seats.
There has been a lawsuit filed in the case.
Supposedly, it was a ploy by the Republicans to take seats from the Democrats by causing some of their likely voters to vote for fake Greens instead. See the lawsuit link in the article for more.
Why would Republicans register Green? That makes no sense lol.