Early voting starts Monday (five local offices will be decided in primary)

Lazaro Aleman ECB Publishing, Inc. With early voting for the primary set to begin on Monday, Aug. 5, it can’t be emphasized enough that when it comes to five of the local races, the primary will be voters’ only chance to make a choice. Florida is a closed primary state, meaning that typically only registered members of a particular political party are able to vote for their respective party’s candidates in primary elections. One exception is a universal primary contest, when all the candidates in a particular race are of the same political party affiliation and the winner of the primary will have no opposition in the general election. The other is nonpartisan races where only two