FEATURED
STORIES
Noticeably absent from Mitt Romney's Florida campaign: Gov. Rick Scott
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Romney dials back criticism during three-city Florida swing
Related: Biden calls for post-election unity, rails on Romney at Sarasota rally
Mitt Romney needs to win Florida, and to do that, it's obvious he does not need Gov. Rick Scott at his side.
Nearly 3 million Floridians have already voted, reports say
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Gainesville Sun
In a historic surge of pre-election voting, nearly one of every three Florida voters expected to participate this year has already cast a ballot for the 2012 election.
"Nightmare:" Long lines, mail-ballot glitches mark South Florida early voting
By Patricia Mazzei and Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
From Miami Haitians to a Harvard student from Broward, voting early in South Florida — be it by mail or in person — is proving troublesome.
Dems Closing Gap in Absentee Voting
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Republicans have traditionally dominated absentee voting, but this election season Democrats are closing the gap.
As Election Day nears, groups brace for a showdown at the polls
By Michael Van Sickler
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
It won't just be voters heading to the polls this week in Florida and other swing states, but thousands of lawyers and volunteers scrutinizing how ballots are handed out, scanned and stored inside precincts.
Political ad war in Florida is breaking records
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Fueled by cash from outside political groups, the arms race over political advertising has reached a crescendo in Florida, where more than $133 million has poured into the state since April to finance a record-breaking barrage of television ads.
FLORIDA
POLITICS
Florida elections officials to return to Palm Beach County ‘seeking answers’ to latest absentee ballot printing error
By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post
Related: Delays in Palm Beach County voters receiving absentee ballots likely due to bar code issue
A day after Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher acknowledged a new and different ballot printing error, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner on Tuesday said he will again dispatch top state officials to monitor her operation.
Absentee voting is easy -- but ballots often tossed out
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Related: Nearly a quarter of Central Florida voters already have cast ballots
More than ever, Florida residents are turning to absentee ballots, but those voters are also the most at risk to have their vote thrown out by Nov. 6.
West Palm Beach woman sues elections supervisor to challenge signature rule for absentee ballots, be allowed to vote
By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post
Well-known Palm Beach County abortion rights activist Mona Reis on Friday will get to ask a judge to let her vote in person after the election canvassing board last week rejected her absentee ballot because the three officials didn’t believe the signature on it was hers.
Florida GOP memo: Democrats are 'cleaning our clock'
By Evan Axelbank
WPTV West Palm Beach
A memo obtained by NewsChannel 5's Evan Axelbank, from an adviser to a Florida GOP campaign, says that the Democratic turnout effort is "cleaning our clock."
Sure, Florida is big in the electoral college, but not as big as it deserves to be
By Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post
You probably think your vote counts more because you live in Florida.
POLITICAL
RACES
From in-person visits to social media, campaigns go all-out to sway voters in tight presidential race
By Dara Kam and John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
A frenzy of phone calls, social media posts and house-to-house door-knocking is consuming the presidential race’s final days, as the data-rich campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney lock into a desperate fight to push voters to the polls in swing state Florida.
Biden rips GOP ticket as undependable opportunists
By Bill Thompson
Ocala Star-Banner
Vice President Joe Biden visited Ocala on Wednesday, blasting his Republican rivals Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as pliable pitchmen who in the final days of the election have softened their rhetoric in order the capture the White House but not their desire to undermine America's middle class.
Obama campaign to roll through Miami with Stevie Wonder, Marc Anthony, first lady
Staff Report
Miami Herald
A few celebrities are scheduled to join First Lady Michelle Obama on Thursday as she makes campaign stops in Jacksonville, Daytona Beach and Miami.
Obama Super PAC "connects the dots" between Rick Scott Medicare fraud and Mitt Romney
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
Priorities USA announced it would run a "Connect the Dots" ad in Florida linking the type of fraud that occurred in 1997 at HCA under now-Gov Rick Scott and a company connected years ago to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Mitt Romney says Obama's Chrysler deal undermined U.S. workers: Pants on Fire!
By Jon Greenberg
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald PolitiFact
With Ohio’s 18 electoral votes very much in play, the Mitt Romney campaign aims to blunt one of Barack Obama’s key advantages in that state -- his rescue of the auto industry.
Florida: Seniors vs. youth vote
Staff Report
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
A Quinnipiac-ABC News-New York Times poll out today has some interesting insights about the presidential race in Florida.
Q poll: Nelson’s lead over Mack at 13 points
By William March
Tampa Tribune
A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Sen. Bill Nelson with a 13-point lead over Congressman Connie Mack IV in Florida’s U.S. Senate race.
Eleven Dirty Ways To Swing an Election
By Adam Serwer
Mother Jones
America has come a long way from the days of Jim Crow segregation, but our voting system is far from perfect, and even today there are organizations committed to preventing legitimate voters from excercising the franchise.
Election Extortion
By Rick Outzen
Florida Voices
Four years ago, companies were banned from telling their employees how to vote.
BALLOT
INITIATIVES
Confusing ballot amendments
By Deirdre Macnab
Seminole Voice
Florida is gearing up for one of our country’s most important elections, and the phones at our League of Women Voters office in Tallahassee are ringing off the hook.
Amendment 6 threatens state's women
By Kathy Schmitz
Orlando Sentinel
A no vote on Amendment 6 is critical to preserving religious freedom, women's rights and the right to privacy. This misleading amendment is a danger to Florida's women.
Amendment 8 backers look to rescind 19th century provision
By Victoria Macchi
Naples Daily News
Twelve lines on next week's ballot require Floridians to decide whether a 137-year-old ban on religious funding will be scrubbed out of the state constitution.
ENVIRONMENT
AND ENERGY
'Johnny Appleseed Of Coral' Invites Tourists To Volunteer While Enjoying The Florida Keys
By Jessica Palombo
WFSU Tallahassee
For years, scientists have been sounding the alarm that the world’s coral reefs are dying and disappearing rapidly.
What we don't know
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
For White Springs Mayor Helen B. Miller, Florida's water problems hit home more than two decades ago, when White Sulphur Springs dried up.
LGBT
Gay foster child allegedly mocked, harassed, ignored
By Carol Marbin Miller
Miami Herald
When leaders of a religious school became suspicious that one of their charges was gay, he was confronted and told to fess up: Is it true or is it false?
EDUCATION
Florida state senator wants to add spots to early learning programs
By Margie Menzel
News Service of Florida
Sen. Bill Montford said today he's considering trying to get the Legislature to earmark money for more slots in school readiness programs statewide.
Conservative education reform group calls Rick Scott's plan "tame"
By Jeff Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has received lots of attention, much of it positive, for his education plans for the coming year.
School district needs to spend $12 million on computers for new tests, officials say
By Jason Schultz
Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach County School District will have to spend far more money on new student computers to meet state requirements over the next three than it expects to have available, officials said Wednesday.
JOBS,
BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
DCF to propose $21 million in new initiatives
By James Call
Florida Current
Sharpen your knives or hatchets: It’s that time when state government does its budget-cutting exercise.
Finance, insurance agencies seek more money in budget request
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
State agencies responsible for regulating the finance and insurance industries are asking for more money in the 2013-2014 fiscal year to replace services that have been cut in recent years because of the recession.
Claims from Sandy in the U.S. Northeast could boost insurance rates in Florida, some worry
By Doreen Hemlock
South Florida Sun Sentinel
A surge of insurance claims from Superstorm Sandy in the Northeast could boost rates in Florida, some insurance professionals fear.
Privatize FEMA? Wash that idea away
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
The list of people unqualified to offer advice on Hurricane Sandy starts with this name: Michael Brown.
HEALTH
AND SENIORS
How The Health Law Might Be Changed By The Next President
By Mary Agnes Carey
Kaiser Health News
On the presidential campaign trail, Republican Mitt Romney has repeatedly called for repeal of the 2010 health law and President Barack Obama has vowed to implement it.
How Rick Scott And Rick Perry Could Cost Hospitals Billions
By Bruce Japsen
Forbes
The nation’s state and local public hospitals may face an increase of more than $50 billion in the costs of uncompensated care by 2019 if states decide against participating in an expansion of the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor.
Flavored Tobacco and Teens
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
On a day when trick- or- treaters and candy reign supreme, Tobacco Free Florida is warning parents to pay attention to candy flavored cigars and snuff, which it says are being marketed to teens.
CIVIL
RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Arguments set in challenge to FL drug testing law
By Kate Brumback
Associated Press
A federal appeals court in Atlanta is set to hear arguments in a legal challenge to a Florida law requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test.
JUSTICE
AND THE COURTS
FDOC Asks Fla. Legislature For Money Back From Failed Prison Privatization Plan
By Sascha Cordner
WFSU Tallahassee
The Florida Department of Corrections is hoping the Florida Legislature will give them back about $11 million that was taken out of its budget when lawmakers planned to privatize about 30 prisons in South Florida.
Prosecutors, public defenders plead for more state funding
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
Florida prosecutors and public defenders can't keep over-worked young lawyers very long without at least a break-even pay raise to offset the state's 3 percent pension deduction, lawyers told state budget planners at a public hearing Wednesday.
Lawyers fuel huge campaign to retain 3 justices
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
The three Florida Supreme Court justices had angered lawmakers and voters, embarrassed the high court and faced uncertain futures.
Readers Poll: GOP's retention decision a bad call
Staff Report
Florida Current
One of the more hotly debated questions on Florida's ballot this election has been whether voters should let Peggy Quince, Barbara Pariente and R. Fred Lewis keep their jobs as Florida Supreme Court justices.
Outspoken Fla. judge accused of ethics violations
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
A state investigative panel is questioning the impartiality of an outspoken Palm Beach County judge who frequently criticizes what he sees as racial bias in state laws, prosecutors and law enforcement.
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