Florida's Latest News

Florida’s early voting off to smooth start across Tampa Bay

In a heated election cycle that has already seen record vote-by-mail participation, the chance to cast a ballot in person has now started in Tampa Bay and much of Florida.

Voters showed up to early voting sites in the pre-dawn hours before doors opened, ready and waiting to cast ballots. In both Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, any long lines that formed appeared to move fairly quickly. In Hillsborough, 2,015 voters cast ballots in person in the first hour alone, while more voters drove by the sites to drop off mail ballots.

In Pinellas, one voter showed up as early as 4:45 a.m. to await the 7 a.m. opening of the early voting site at the elections service center in Largo, said poll worker Jackaline Shields. She said everyone was polite and understanding and said there was a “steady flow” of voters.

Guard ballot drop boxes, DeSantis tells Florida elections officials in last-minute memo before early voting starts

Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration is telling county elections supervisors that ballot collection boxes outside early voting sites have to be staffed, but the local officials' attorney said Florida law doesn’t include any such requirement.

Department of State General Counsel Brad McVay sent an email to supervisors on Wednesday — just days before the vast majority of the state’s 67 counties begin early voting Monday — that he said was aimed at answering questions raised by local officials about drop boxes.

According to McVay’s interpretation of state law and a rule, drop boxes have to be manned by an elections official or an armed law enforcement officer at all times.

GOP leaders take aim at Loranne Ausley in SD 3

A North Florida Senate district controlled by Democrats for decades is in the crosshairs of incoming Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Republican who is pouring money into a contest that has surprisingly become one of the most contentious legislative races in the November elections.

Rep. Loranne Ausley, a scion of one of Tallahassee’s most prominent families, was elected to two stints in the state House before launching a bid in Senate District 3, an open seat currently held by term-limited Sen. Bill Montford.

Ausley long was considered a shoo-in to win the sprawling district, which includes the capital city and 11 largely rural counties, stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Georgia border. In addition to Leon County, where Tallahassee is located, those counties are Franklin, Gulf, Taylor, Wakulla, Calhoun, Gadsden, Jefferson, Liberty, Madison and Hamilton.

Latest poll shows Donald Trump narrowing deficit in Hillsborough County

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead shrunk in Hillsborough County since the last poll conducted in late September, according to a new survey from St. Pete Polls released Saturday.

The latest poll shows Biden with a 9-point lead over Donald Trump in the county at 53% to 44%. The previous poll, by the same pollsters, showed Trump with a 13 point deficit in the county at 55% to 42%.

Things can change swiftly in a presidential election, but none as much as the swiftness by which 2020 seems to alter the daily news cycle.