On 15 March 2016, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump posted a message on Twitter stating that he had heard reports his name had been left off primary ballots in the state of Florida:
Trump was referring to a series of tweets posted earlier in the day by Fox News reporter Jennifer Eckhart. Eckhart provided no proof that Trump's name had actually been left off of Florida ballots, only that a local Fox affiliate station had received "dozens" of complaints asserting such:
No evidence surfaced showing that Trump's name had been left off 2016 Republican primary ballots in Florida. However, news outlets such as Yahoo News provided a potential clue to the rumor in reporting that since Florida is a closed-primary state, only registered Republicans would receive ballots that included Trump's name:
Florida election officials said that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's name was not left off ballots in a town in south Florida, despite a small number of voter complaints.
Florida is a closed-primary state, which means only registered Republicans would get a ballot listing Trump and the other GOP candidates.
Eckhart also noted that at least one of the complaints had come from someone who had been given the wrong ballot:
Florida Secretary of State Kent Detzner dismissed reports that Donald Trump's name had been omitted from Republican ballots, saying that Trump was among the candidates certified to be listed on the primary ballot:
Would like to assure all FL voters that ballots for the PPP included all candidate names certified by me on Dec. 15.
Rumors that Donald Trump's name was left off of ballots in Florida were not accompanied by any evidence. Although a reporter claimed that "dozens" of people had filed complaints, it is more likely that these reports stemmed either from voters receiving the wrong ballots (in other words, human error), or from voters who had never been registered to vote in that state's Republican primary election.