Everyone can vote for state attorney and public defender -- which is how things should be.

Congratulations to all the area candidates running for state attorney and public defender, you took the high road!

These candidates had to file qualifying papers by last Friday and because they are all from the same party, the doors to the normally closed party primary have been flung open to everyone. Even if you aren’t registered with any political party at all. Everyone gets to vote. Which is how it should be.

Running for state attorney are the incumbent, State Attorney R.J. Larizza, and a challenger, DeLand attorney Donald Dempsey Jr., both Republicans (although Dempsey will be on the ballot as an independent.) Running for public defender are George Burden, Anne Marie Gennusa and Matt Metz. Also, all Republicans.

The 7th judicial circuit covers a lot of real estate -- Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns and Putnam counties. So a lot of registered voters are affected – 704,724 as of last March.

Under a state constitutional amendment passed by voters in 1998, all voters can participate in primary elections when all candidates running belong to the same party and there is no general election opposition.

To get around this, when people from only one party are running for a post, candidates often recruit a supporter to run as a write-in. The job of the ringer candidate is to file papers and lay low until election day. When that happens, the primary stays closed as usual as though the write-in were a real candidate who had some chance of running a real race. It’s called "the write-in loophole."

The loophole gets employed frequently, especially in counties and legislative districts that are lopsidedly one party or another. Legislative candidates, in particular, can be relied upon to use the write-in loophole to make sure only a minority of registered voters get to elect their representative.

It’s a cheesy tactic that confirms public cynicism about politics.

There have been periodic pushes to close the write-in loophole. The loophole can be closed by simple legislation, and bills to do that have been regularly filed and have all been ignored.

Most recently, the Florida Constitutional Revision Commission considered a proposed constitutional amendment to close the loophole in 2018. That proposal never made it to the ballot.

If there’s one thing both parties can agree upon, it’s that Florida’s closed-primary system must be safeguarded. A system that locks out the state’s 3.6 million voters who do not wish to affiliate with either party.

It’s refreshing when candidates forswear this tactic as is happening in these races. But we shouldn’t need to count on candidates’ sense of fair play and inclusiveness.

But for this year, voters of Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns and Putnam counties, enjoy having your say. Court-related races don’t always get a lot of voter interest, but few parts of the ballot have a more direct effect on individual lives.