As newcomers to Florida, my husband and I were excited to vote in our first election here last week.

As registered Democrats, we intended to vote on the nonpartisan county measures. When we arrived at our precinct, signed in and received our ballots, we realized we had received Republican presidential-primary ballots instead of nonpartisan ballots.

We returned to the poll worker, noted the error and asked for nonpartisan ballots. He said “I know you’re Democrats, but we haven’t received those ballots here, so don’t worry about it, just vote on the Republican ballot.”

We asked if Democrats could vote in the Republican primary (knowing the answer), and he said “No, but don’t worry about it, just vote on this ballot.” We went back to this question three times and got the same answer.

So, as registered Democrats, we were instructed by a Miami poll worker to vote in the Republican primary. With recollections of the Florida voting issues from the 2000 Bush-Gore election, we are worried.

After all the time, money and attention, it is disturbing that this kind of voting irregularity is still happening here. Why?

Rochelle Lessner, Miami