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Mike Freed, a business attorney with Gunster Shareholder, began a 160 mile journey from the Florida Supreme Court to the Duval County Court House Monday morning as part of an effort to raise money to pay legal bills for low income and vulnerable patients.

This is the fourth year Freed has made the run and by the time he completes this year’s six day journey he will have run the equivalent of 24 marathons.

In that time Freed has raise more than $1 million for the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Northeast Florida Medial Legal Partnership.

He’s hoping to get to $2.25 million.

“People that are dealing with these challenges have a lot of problems as well. Physical, financial and others, so for me it’s just a manifestation of what they experience and the little bit of sacrifice that I do to run for six days straight is nothing compared to the challenges they have to suffer. So I’m happy to do my part and it gets peoples’ attention and instead of having people give a little bit, they give a lot,” said Freed.

You can donate at freedtorun.com.

All donations will be matched at 125 percent by Baptist Health up to $1.25 million.

Florida voters overwhelming rejected a plan to make it harder to amend the state constitution this year, but the near record turnout means it will still be harder to get an amendment on the ballot in the coming years.

The number of signatures a citizen initiative needs to collect to make it on the ballot is equal to eight percent of voter turn out in the last presidential election.

Citizen initiative guru John Sowinski with Consensus Communications said historically, the number goes up, not down.

“Every time we have a Presidential Election we have A, more population. B, as of late much higher turnout. So that drives up the number that’s required,” said Sowinski.

Since 1970, the signature requirement for citizen initiatives has risen by an average of 12 percent every four years.

Citizen initiatives had to collect 766,200 signatures in order to make it on the 2020 ballot.

After this election, the requirement will rise by roughly 15 percent.

Early calculations suggest campaigns will have to collect in the ball park of 880,000 signatures to get amendments on the 2022 ballot.

Make It Legal Florida’s proposed amendment to legalize recreational marijuana is best positioned to make it on the 2022 ballot, having already collected more than 550,000 signatures.

“Obviously we knew going into 2020 that this was going to be a high turnout year,” said Make It Legal Florida Chairman Nick Hansen.

Hansen said he’s confident they’ll be able to meet the new threshold.

“It is our hope to be done with this by mid-2021,” said Hansen.

But more signatures means more money.

Sowinski estimates the projected signature increase will cost campaigns about $1 million extra.

“For a campaign that would already be spending three to five million dollars to gather the signatures,” said Sowinski.

On top of the increased signature threshold, recent laws also limit signatures’ validity to two years and require paid petition gatherers to register with the state, making direct democracy in Florida harder and more expensive than ever before.

When veterans come home from from battle, transitioning back into civilian life can be a daunting task.

On average, 20 veterans die from suicide each day according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, but groups like K9s for Warriors are working to bring that number down by training service dogs to help veterans cope with the physical and mental scars from service.

“You know I’m a graduate of the program in 2015 and I came back and I started working here and I can see how this program affects the warrior and their family,” said Greg Wells, Manager of Programs with K9s for Warriors.

The program has been able to continue its work through the pandemic, training 90 dogs and pairing them with veterans.

“We were in a state where we could keep going. The doors were still open. And you can’t Zoom train a dog. You can’t Zoom train a warrior,” said K9s for Warriors CEO Rory Diamond.

Working at a limited capacity has come at a cost.

The program’s wait time has doubled from two to four years, with 391 veterans on the wait list.

“Our biggest fear is to lose a warrior on our wait list. Our warriors, 82 percent of them have attempted suicide before they come here and we have an almost perfect record in stopping it after a warrior comes here, but we’ve got to get them through our doors first,” said Diamond.

But the program has plans to expand to meet the growing need.

“We’re going to break ground next year on what we call a ‘Mega Kennel’. The world’s largest rescue dog training center. So we’ll get much more dogs like Angel here through our system,” said Diamond.

K9s for Warriors is 100 percent free to veterans and while the Florida Legislature approved $600,000 for the program this year, private donations provide most of the funding.

If you want to help their cause, you can donate at k9sforwarriors.org.

K9s for Warriors has a 10 year history of helping veterans and currently operates in 47 states.

In that time it has trained and paired 641 service dogs with veterans.

Governor Ron DeSantis and top Legislative leaders have thrown their support behind a bill to crack down on rioting and create harsher penalties for those who attack law enforcement officers, but Florida Democrats plan to file a competing bill that would do away with some protections for law enforcement officers.

The bill would open up individual officers to lawsuits if they violate citizens’ civil rights in the course of their duties.

Individual officers are shielded from civil lawsuits unless it can be proven they knowingly violated a statutory or constitutional right under what is known as qualified immunity.

“We have to deal with over policing,” said State Senator Shevrin Jones.

Jones believes qualified immunity protects officers who do wrong on the job.

“No one should be able to be shield from any liability when they’ve caused harm to individuals or an individual’s family,” said Jones.

Qualified immunity is a federal doctrine.

Jones said he’s looking at a law passed in Colorado this year, which allows civil suits against officers to be brought in state court.

However, Pinellas Country Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said as it stands now, law enforcement agencies can still be held liable for civil damages.

“If you don’t act maliciously, if you just acted negligently and you just made a mistake, then you can’t be sued so you’re not reaching into your own pocket,” said Gualtieri. “But if you cross the line and you do act maliciously, you do act intentionally, you do under federal law violate clearly established law then you own it and you should.”

He argued doing away with qualified immunity would leave officers without any protection from frivolous lawsuits.

“Why should a cop making $45,000 a year have to worry every single time you’re making a split second decision that you might have to do something that affects your family and you personally and that you’re going to have to pay personal damages?” said Gualtieri.

The Senator said he has not yet drafted the bill and noted he is speaking with law enforcement groups to find some common ground in hopes of putting a product forward that could increase police accountability.

On the federal level there have also been bills filed to do away with or reform qualified immunity.

In the House 65 Democrats and one Republican are cosponsoring a bill that would end qualified immunity.

In the Senate, Kamala Harris sponsored a resolution calling for the elimination of qualified immunity back in June.

Over the weekend, Florida recorded the highest daily COVID case numbers since September 1st.

The increase comes despite testing facilities in South Florida closing due to now-Tropical Storm Eta.

Infectious disease experts expect trends to continue getting worse.

With more than 6,600 cases reported Sunday, Florida’s cases continue to trend upward.

Dr. John Lednicky, a global health researcher at the University of Florida expects things to get worse, before they get better.

“Lower humidity allows those virus particles to stay suspended in air for a longer period of time and if it’s cold, the virus particles survive,” said Dr. Lednicky.

While cases may be ticking up across the state, visitation and other protocols at nursing homes are likely to stay the same.

“Visitors, their temperatures are taken, they’re screened,” said Kristen Knapp with the Florida Health Care Association.

The association reports infection rates at eldercare facilities remain low.

“99 percent of our residents are COVID free. A lot of that is a testament again, to the protocols that are in place,” said Knapp.

We reached out to the Governor’s Office and Department of Health and asked if the upward trend would change any state policies or recommendations, but did not receive a response.

Dr. Ron Saff with the Florida Chapter of the Physicians for Social Responsibility hopes a Biden administration will do a better job at encouraging mask wearing and social distancing.

“He’s frequently wearing a mask. When you see President Trump, he’s frequently not wearing a mask and I think people learn by watching the behavior of our leaders,” said Dr. Saff.

But Dr. Lednicky said messaging from the top aside, he anticipates little change in pandemic response efforts.

“I’m a scientist and I listen to their message and what they say they’re going to be doing and it’s really not very different,” said Dr. Lednicky.

And while scientists expect the winter to bring more cases, promising news on the vaccine front does paint some hope for optimism on the horizon.

Both doctors we spoke with emphasized the need to wear masks and social distance in the absence of a vaccine, arguing it remains the most effective way to protect yourself and slow the spread.

Despite the pandemic and unemployment, voters in 17 out of 18 Florida counties voted higher taxes for themselves this week.

They ranged from funding a hospital to protecting children, but the majority of the hikes will to to fund schools.

Voters in ten counties voted to continue or raise property and sales taxes to fund schools.

Combined, the measures passed with 62.8 percent of the vote.

Political Scientist Susan MacManus said it should come as no surprise.

“I think its a message about education being a high priority, particularly to people with children. There’s a lot of frustration,” said MacManus.

The successful referendums follow 2018, when 21 of 21 counties voted to tax themselves for schools.

“You want to understand this suburban moms everyone talks about? Look no further than what’s affecting her children,” said MacManus.

But this year wasn’t unanimous.

In rural Liberty County a half cent tax referendum lost by 17 votes.

“It’s a front porch to our community, our schools are,” said Donnie Read, Liberty County GOP Chair.

Administrators there committed the cardinal sin of local tax referendums.

“We should have let them know what it was for. We should have had a campaign of some kind. You know, I just don’t think we did a very good job of doing that, you know,” said Read.

MacManus and the Florida School Boards Association have suggested the successful referendums should be taken by lawmakers as a message to provide more school funding from the state level.

Ten counties also raised taxes for Children’s services, protecting the environment and law enforcement.

Combined the 20 referendums averaged 65 percent of the vote, so it’s clear Floridians are not tax adverse, as long as they know where the money is going.

Voters also approved business tax breaks for new jobs in nine counties, and voters in Gilchrist County ended the last Sunday ban on alcohol sales in the state.

One of the biggest games of college football takes place Saturday, with the Florida Gators taking on the Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville.

But because of the ongoing pandemic the game won’t look the same.

A new report from Florida TaxWatch says the pandemic hampered college football season paints a bleak picture for the economy.

College football games generate billions for local economies and over $141 million in state and local tax revenue each year in Florida.

“You know, we know locally here in Tallahassee that in 2018-2019, football brought in $51 million in spending in the community,” said Florida TaxWatch Vice President Kyle Baltuch.

Baltuch expects anywhere from ten to 25 fewer college football games to be played in Florida this year due to a shortened season and possible COVID cancellations.

“And without those games and without that ability to generate that revenue there are some businesses that are going to be in real trouble,” said Baltuch.

Even a one percent drop in leisure and hospitality spending could put more than 5,000 Florida jobs at risk.

On the high end, a ten percent drop could impact more than 50,000 jobs.

“And really you look at the hospitality sector and a little bit of the retail sector that are going to be most at risk,” said Baltuch. “You go to town for a big game. You’re going to be going out to dinner at your favorite local restaurant. You’re going to be hitting up, at least here in Tallahassee, a Garnet and Gold to pick up your shirt for the year. Those jobs are going to be impacted significantly.”

In addition to the economy, universities could also take a huge hit.

A 25 percent reduction in revenues could cost teams as much as $70 million, leaving universities strapped for cash.

“You already see universities that are making strifes to protect against it. You look at Florida State boosters. They’ve already reduced jobs and so has the athletic department and many universities around the state are doing exactly the same,” said Baltuch.

Baltuch suggested to make up the money, power conference teams like FSU and UF may decide to forgo costly games against smaller schools in the future.

Athletic scholarships for lower revenue generating sports could also be reduced or cut completely.

And Baltuch estimates the limited crowd and tailgating restrictions for the Florida Georgia game this weekend could reduce local revenues by about $10 million compared to previous years.

Democrats lost Florida by nearly four points.

It’s considered by some to be a huge margin in what has traditionally been a swing state.

They also took a beating in the state Legislature, even though tens of millions from out of state went to down ballot races.

Now there are calls for new party leadership.

Florida Democrats had high hopes that crashed on Election Day.

They lost three incumbents in the state House and lost two open seats vacated by Democrats running for the Senate.

Those who survived have had enough.

“The direction of our current leadership is not putting us on a path of building collective power. It’s transactional, it doesn’t address policies or issues that impact everyday people,” said State Representative Anna Eskamani.

The party also bet heavily on picking up open Senate Seats in Tampa and Seminole County.

It lost both.

Now it’s facing a recount in what was supposed to be a safe seat in Miami.

The margin is 21 votes.

The incoming Senate President expects the GOP to prevail.

“And if she wins, it will be 24, which would be one pick up in the Florida Senate,” said Senate President Designate Wilton Simpson.

Surviving Democrats blame the party for its tepid, almost non endorsement, endorsement of the minimum wage amendment, which got 6.3 million votes.

John Morgan, the man who bankrolled the minimum wage amendment, has been critical of the lone statewide elected Democrat, Nikki Fried, for not supporting the raise in wages.

A widely circulated tweet shows the corporate cash that flowed to the party.

“But, we are fearful of really amplifying because of threatening corporate donors,” said Eskamani.

Political Scientist Susan MacManus said the party put too much stock in out of touch consultants.

“You know, you can have the most money in the world but if you don’t spend it smarty, then you can lose. And there’s a lot of evidence of that here,” said MacManus.

In a statement, Democrats are taking credit for winning 225 local races.

The release makes no mention of their losses.

Pundits nationally are now calling Florida’s election system a model for the nation, but it took a national embarrassment to make it happen.

As votes are still being counted, voters in Pennsylvania are getting a message from their Governor.

“So it may take a little longer than we’re used to, even a few days, but that’s okay,” said Governor Tom Wolf in a televised PSA.

And on Fox News, Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee had this to say.

“Florida was a national embarrassment in how it counted votes. Now, its the national model of efficiency,” said Huckabee.

But it didn’t come easily.

Florida has been the butt of jokes for nearly two decades.

In 2001, then State Representative Dudley Goodlet shepherded a massive change through the State Legislature.

“I think it happened because reasonable people who can disagree at times understood the importance of getting it right,” said Goodlet.

Just two members of the 160 member Legislature voted no.

The $32 million that was spent in 2001 would be worth about $50 million today.

It’s money those involved back then say was well worth it.

It is the framework of what we see today.

And now Governor Ron DeSantis is saying the long national shame is over.

“So, perhaps, 2020 was the year that we finally vanquished the ghost of Bush versus Gore,” said DeSantis.

Because of the pandemic, the Governor ordered mail ballots be counted early.

We didn’t get a chance to ask if that change will be made permanent.

The Governor also ridiculed Nevada, which stopped counting ballots overnight and said there may have been ulterior motives for the major networks not calling Florida when the outcome was known.

He didn’t specify what those motives may have been.

Candidates weren’t the only thing on the ballot in Florida.

Voters also gave a thumbs up or down to six proposed changes to the state’s constitution.

Voters approved four out of six amendments on the ballot.

Florida’s minimum wage will rise to $15 an hour by 2026.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce fears the wage hike could cost the state half a million jobs.

“And that’s before you factor in COVID at all,” said Dr. Jerry Parrish, Chief Economist of the Florida Chamber Foundation.

John Morgan sponsored the minimum wage amendment.

In a tweet he celebrated saying, “The People of Florida gave the working poor of Florida a forever raise”.

“Yeah there’s going to be a few people that make more money, but it’s at a great cost to Florida,” said Dr. Parrish.

Voters also shot down a proposal to open the state’s Primary Elections.

Amendment guru John Sowinski said opposition from both parties likely sealed the amendment’s fate.

“Folks being told to vote no by both the Republican and the Democratic Party is what brought it down. The surprising thing to me is how narrow the margin was,” said Sowinski.

Voters also rejected a proposal that would have required any future amendment to go before voters twice.

“The proponents tried to frame it as there being a problem with direct democracy. Voters clearly don’t see a problem with direct democracy,” said Aliki Moncrief with Florida Conservation Voters.

And Sowinski hopes voters were able to send a message to lawmakers, who have in recent years sought to restrict the citizen initiative process.

“This is a clear message from voters that it’s a process they support and want to keep,” said Sowinski.

Voters also put a citizenship requirement for voting in the constitution, and voted their pocket book by extending a homestead property tax limitation and approving a tax discount for spouses of deceased veterans.

At least 10 million voters weighed in on each amendment, which Sowinski told us is evidence Floridians value the ability to weigh in on policy questions and likely a reason they rejected the amendment that would have made it more difficult to amendment the constitution.

Despite record numbers of mail ballots and early voting Florida’s Secretary of State said the state saw medium to high turnout on Election Day.

She said the election went smoothly here, but there were isolated issues.

The Trump campaign was hoping to see a red wave of in person voting on Election Day and with the state seeing medium to high turnout despite the fact nine million voters had already cast their ballot it appears that’s come to fruition.

“We got up to over 200,000 plus net voters that were Republican. So to do that we had to have great turnout today,” said Evan Power, Chairman of Chairs for the Republican Party of Florida.

By 9:30 PM pollster Steve Vancore called Florida for Trump.

“The outstanding ballots that are still being sent into the system are leaning slightly Republican,” said Vancore.

Florida’s Secretary of State Laurel Lee reported the state’s election systems were not compromised by cyberattacks and called the election a success.

“And what we have seen today is an example of incredible teamwork between Florida’s voters, our poll workers and our Supervisors of Elections,” said Lee.

But voting wasn’t easy for everyone.

Broward County voter Trey Jenkins said when his ID was scanned at his precinct, he was told he had already voted.

“I was like, well I haven’t submitted a mail ballot. I didn’t get a mail in ballot,” said Jenkins.

He said after waiting about an hour for the issue to be sorted out, he was told a computer error was at fault and he was allowed to cast a ballot.

“I think it’s really important to vote. It’s one of the few freedoms that we get in the United States that’s really important to me, so that’s why I decided to stick it out,” said Jenkins.

Overall the Secretary of State said her office fielded 1,600 calls for voter assistance throughout the day, but she said like in Jenkins’ case, elections supervisors were able to sort out the issues to allow every eligible voter to cast a ballot.

Lee also noted voters were well mannered and respectful at the polls, she encouraged civility no matter the final results.

The Secretary of State says all 6,000 precincts opened on time across Florida Tuesday morning.

Technology issues were reported in two counties, and security was tight in the Capitol and elsewhere.

As polls opened, the 43 degree temperature was the coolest of the fall so far in North Florida.

“I wanted to get it over with and done before I head off to work,” said Leon County voter Emily Lockard.

Inside, it took the first voter seven minutes to cast the first ballot.

“I just felt like I don’t want to worry about signatures not matching if I dropped it in the mailbox. I just wanted to know my vote was going to count and not have to worry about it,” said Leon County voter Daniel Voyer.

“I always vote on election day,” said Leon County Voter Mary Rose Stone.

As of of 11 AM, 1.2 million mail ballots were still outstanding.

Thousands were being turned in at drop boxes across the state.

Security at the state elections office was beefed up and the Secretary of State acknowledged the National Guard was on alert.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the Florida national guard is activating a number of soldiers who will be available to assist the state, standing by to assist local law enforcement and their communities as needed,” said Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee.

One lawsuit was filed by and incumbent Hillsborough County judge who was eliminated in the primary.

Elections experts told us more suits will come.

How many depends on how close the results.

“Both sides are going to be looking very closely at either finding votes, or un-finding votes. And that’s really what causes the litigation,” said attorney Lori Killinger.

There have been complaints of long lines in some counties, prompting some to call it voter intimidation, but the law says voters still in line when the polls close will be allowed to vote.

Under state law, all elections lawsuits must be filed in the state’s capital.

In anticipation, the chief judge there has added three judges to the civil bench, just in case there is a flood of suits.

Florida was the laughing stock of the nation in 2000 and three statewide recounts in 2018 changed the outcome of the Agriculture Commissioner’s race.

Changes to Florida law have basically solved the problems of twenty years ago, but this election won’t be over until it’s over.

Unlike other states, votes in Florida are already being counted and have been for weeks.

By 7:30 Tuesday night, local supervisors will post the results for the nine million votes already cast.

But as we learned in 2000, Election Day isn’t the end.

“There are no winners on election night. I don’t care what the media says. The winners are determined once we’ve counted all the votes. And it takes a lot of time to count all the votes,” said Mark Earley, Vice President of the Florida Supervisors of Elections.

Nationwide, half the states allow mail ballots to arrive after election day.

Florida does not.

Monday began with 1.3 million mail ballots still outstanding and thousands of those mail ballots were being delivered to drop boxes across the state throughout the day.

“Anything we get late in the day on Election Day likely we will not have a chance to get all of the signatures verified for that, so those will be in process and we’ll get to those either on Wednesday or Thursday after the election,” said Earley.

One of those mail ballots belongs to Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis.

“I’m going to walk it in. I’m going to bring it into the voting precinct,” said DeSantis.

Voters with spoiled mail ballots have until 5 pm Thursday to fix a bad signature or other problem.

“Overseas military. I think those are important votes,” said Earley.

More than 103,000 mail ballots were sent to military stateside and overseas.

Totals for how many have been returned are unknown.

“If they come in, they’ve got up until ten days for us to receive their ballot,” said Earley.

Any of a handful of things can change a close race, which means this election won’t be over till it’s over.

Totals for recounts in races separated by less than a half of percent aren’t due until nine days after the election.

Final results aren’t due from the counties until the following Sunday the 15th and Florida won’t officially certify the results until Tuesday, November 17th.

With 8.9 million Floridians having already cast their vote ahead of Election Day, only 450,000 voters would have to go to the polls Tuesday to match the turnout in 2016.

Florida is expected to see record turnout this year, but who will take the sunshine state is still up in the air.

Republicans had been inching closer to Democrats’ lead in votes cast over the past week, but failed to surpass it.

With Democrats still holding a 108,000 vote advantage, Steve Schale with the Biden-backing Unite the Country PAC is feeling confident going into Election Day.

“I like where we are. I mean obviously it’s trite to say it’s going to come down to turnout. It will come down to turnout tomorrow, I think Joe Biden has a real shot here,” said Schale.

But Republicans are confident they can close the gap with Election Day turnout.

“This is when we turn on the afterburners. This is when our voters, they prefer to vote in person on Election Day traditionally. They’re going to come out in waves. I mean it’s going to be overwhelming tomorrow,” said Christian Ziegler, Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.

63 percent of Florida voters have already cast their ballots.

If 3.1 million show up to the polls on Election Day the state will have surpassed the previous turnout record set in 1992.

“The more people that vote the better it is for democracy and frankly, the more people that vote probably the better it is for Joe Biden,” said Schale.

Polling shows Democrats hold the advantage among the 1.9 million independent voters who have already voted, but Republicans won the registration battle.

“I just think we have more voters on the table than Democrats did in 2016 and I think that’s thanks to the Governor investing in registering voters and putting us in a position where we’re able to turnout our voters and Democrats have already turned out their voters,” said Evan Power, Chairman of Chairs for the Republican Party of Florida.

When Florida’s race is called it could seal the fate of the election.

A Biden victory here would make a second term for Trump nearly impossible.

The parties hope we’ll have an answer Tuesday night.

Polling averages from Real Clear Politics shows Biden holding a one point advantage over Trump in Florida.

In 2016, Trump led by two tenths of a point going into Election Day, but ultimately came out 1.2 percent ahead in the results.