BAY COUNTY, FL- In Tuesday's Florida Republican Presidential primary only registered Republicans were able to vote for a Republican nominee.

The state of Florida changed its Presidential primary date this year to play a bigger role in selecting the party's nominee.

"There's alot of debate because we lost half of our delegates, but I think in the long run it's probably worth it because Florida is going to have a strong voice in seeing who our nominee is going to be," said Bay County Republican Party Chairman John Salak.

Salak believes Florida is a key state for the Republican nominee to win, because only Republicans have a say in the outcome.

"All the other primaries we've allowed Independents, and Democrats to jump in and try to select our candidate. I think Florida is a broad cross-section of what this country is from the Northeast to the South. You find a huge cross-section of those kind of people here in Florida."

Although all the candidates names were listed on Tuesday's ballot, the only 4 left in the race are Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum.

Voters we spoke with say it came down to who they believe can change things in Washington.

"I feel we've been spending ourselves into debt, both as Republicans and Democrats," John Darrah said. "It's a debt we can't sustain, and we need to change our direction."

George Christo added, "Mostly concerned about the federal government because of the economy, and I think only the federal government can fix what's gone wrong. I want a voice in that fix. So that's why I came out to vote."

Bay County has fifty thousand of the state's more than four million registered Republicans. About five thousand of them took advantage of early voting.