Both states had seriously contested primaries.  In  Vermont, most of the contests were in the Democratic Party, while Florida had serious contests at the top of both party tickets.  I guess Floridians were too busy lining up for the early bird specials.  The turnout differences are amazing.  

The New York Times reports that in Florida “[i]n all, 1.25 million Republicans cast ballots in the Republican Governor’s race, while fewer than 909,000 Democrats voted in the Democratic Senate primary.”  Given the state’s population of about 18, 537,969 (at last estimate), that’s a turnout of 6.7% of the population for the GOP and 4.9% for the Dems.

In Vermont (population estimate: 621,254), there were 72,766 votes cast in the Democratic primary for Governor.  That’s 11.7% of the population.  (And in August!)

What does that say?  Vermont is a community.  Florida is a confederation of condos and shopping malls.