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The incoming Republican Speaker of the House and a powerful Democratic State Senator are taking the unusual step of asking the Florida Supreme Court to remove Amendment 3 from the November ballot.

The amendment, know as ‘All Voters Vote’ would effectively end primary elections as we know them.

The lawmakers are raising concerns the amendment would negatively impact minority candidates.

Florida Democrats are blanketing voters mail boxes across the state, urging a no vote on Amendment 3.

The amendment would allow all voters to vote in primaries, with the top two candidates advancing to November.

In Sept, Florida’s black caucus first raised concerns the amendment would derail Black candidates.

“Impacting minority representation greatly in Tallahassee,” said Rep. Randolph Bracy.

When the Amendment was before Florida’s Supreme Court, both political parties opposed it.

In the court’s March opinion it said the amendment was fit for the ballot.

”It’s a political roulette wheel. No on knows what elections would look like under this new system,” said Speaker Designate of the Florida House Rep. Chris Sprowls.

Srowls and Democratic State Senator Janet Cruz are backing a law suit.

It asks the high court to order votes for Amendment 3 not be counted, arguing the court should now consider the issue of Black representation.

“It would be very unlikely that any African, and Florida Senate district would be able to elect an African American Senator,” said Cruz.

The lawsuit comes as the All Voters Vote releases its first ad.

And the campaign told us the law suit ignores the impact of adding 3.6 million non party voters.

“And the message to them is no thanks. Unless you join our party, we don’t want to hear from you. I think that’s shameful,” said Glen Burhans, Chair of All Voters Vote. “Their arguments today reeked of fear.”

And the campaign said polls show the amendment too close to call.

If the amendment receives 60 percent of the vote, elections would not change until the 2024 August Primary.

A Florida appellate court has sided with the state on the lawsuit aimed at overturning the requirement for schools to reopen in-class learning.

The Florida Education Association attempted to block the Department of Education’s reopening order, which required schools to provide in class learning or receive less funding.

“It wasn’t about closing schools, keeping schools closed. It was about local control,” said FEA President Andrew Spar.

The appellate court not only said the teachers union had no standing to bring the suit, but also rejected its arguments against the state’s order.

It said districts did in fact have the final say on how and when to reopen.

“School districts could have chosen not to do it, that is correct. And they would have had their funding adjusted the way it would be adjusted under any other normal year if they didn’t offer brick and mortar classrooms,” said Executive Director of the Florida School Boards Association Andrea Messina.

The ruling comes as a new study out of Brown University has suggested schools aren’t the super spreaders many had feared.

The study looking at more than 1,200 schools across the country found infection rates among students and staff are well below one percent.

School boards are taking the study with a grain of salt.

“I can find studies that will tell you both sides, but being safe and being cautious and being careful and monitoring the situation, there’s no substitute for those things,” said Messina.

And the union intends to push forward with its lawsuit.

“We believe the appellate court got it wrong, but we still believe the commissioner believes he can overstep his authority as an appointed bureaucrat and override locally elected school boards, elected by parents and community leaders. Let’s not forget that,” said Spar. “As a parent myself, I want my child to be safe and I want to know that they’re safe when they go to school.”

The union said it will ask for a hearing before the full appellate court, but it’s likely the case will ultimately be decided by the State Supreme Court.

According to the latest numbers provided by the state, no K-12 school has reported more than 50 cases.

Concern that there may not be a decision election night is putting a new focus on congressional elections in Florida and elsewhere.

If neither Presidential candidate receives 270 electoral votes, the ultimate decision would be up to the U.S. House or Representatives.

Florida has 14 Republican members of the US House and 13 Democrats.

“That is really significant if no candidate gets 270 electoral college votes, and then the election of the President kicks in to the U.S.House of Representatives,” said retired USF political scientist Susan MacManus.

Two of the state’s 27 seats seem to be in play.

HD 15 in Polk, where the incumbent lost a primary.

“And it is seen by Democrats as the biggest likelihood for a pick up by a Democrat,” said MacManus.

But the most vulnerable is HD 26 held by Democrat Debbie Marscel Powell.

She’s facing a strong challenge from Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Giminez.

Florida Republicans are putting on a full court press.

“You get one vote, and around the country now, it’s 26-24 in terms of states that have majority Republican delegations. And that makes the House of Representatives more important than ever,” said US Rep. Michael Waltz.

Not since 1824 has the US House decided who would be president when it chose John Quincy Adams, who lost the popular vote over Andrew Jackson.

He served just one term, and Jackson was elected President in 1828.

“Everything seems to be a long shot. It’s just one of the most unpredictable Presidential contests,” said MacManus.

It almost happened in 2000.

The Florida House went so far as to name GOP electors just incase Florida’s election outcome and the outcome of the race was still tied up in court.

Five Florida Congressmen are calling for an investigation into the pandemic relief loan secured by the Florida Democratic Party in May.

It is still not known who signed off on the application for the loan, and the Republican Congressmen believe criminal charges could be warranted.

Republicans have used the $780,000 PPP loan secured by the Florida Democratic Party in local and national attack ads.

After months of not receiving a full explanation of how the loan was secured, they’re now calling on the Small Business Administration to investigate.

“The bottom line is the American people and Floridians deserve transparency,” said Congressman Michael Waltz.

Waltz and four other Republican Congressman in Florida are leading the charge.

“If there’s a reasonable explanation let’s hear it and if there needs to be accountability let’s see it,” said Waltz.

Most important, Waltz said, is determining who signed off on the application.

“And I would find it very difficult to believe that the senior leadership of the Florida Democratic Party didn’t approve this loan, know that it was going out,” said Waltz.

We’ve been asking for months, but The Democratic Party of Florida has so far refused to release the loan application.

The state’s highest ranking Democrat, Agriculture Commission Nikki Fried told us several weeks ago she’s satisfied with explanations given to her by the party.

“They returned the money and they have realized that that was a mistake to have applied for it to begin with,” said Fried.

Waltz said the public deserves to hear that explanation.

“It’s their money. It’s not her money,” said Waltz.

Financial records show the Democratic Party did pay back the loan it received.

Waltz argued that doesn’t undo any potential wrongdoing.

Lying on a PPP loan application is a felony carrying up to five years in prison and or a $250,000 fine.

We reached out to the Democratic Party of Florida for comment on this story and requested a copy of the original loan application.

We did not receive a response.

After a two and a half hour telephone hearing Thursday morning, the question of whether Florida should extend its voter registration is in the hands of a Federal Judge.

The judge is weighing whether an extension will cause more harm than good in the long run.

Statistics provided by the state comparing final day registrations in 2018 against this year suggest 21,722 more people might have registered if the system hadn’t crashed.

“The state agrees with Judge walker on the record that the state received fewer numbers that would have otherwise been expected, even after re-opening it back up again,” said Senior Attorney for the Advancement Project Jorge Vasquez.

Voting groups suing the state had wanted another full day of registration, with a day to get ready.

“And to make sure there is enough opportunity to at least get on the radio, provide campaign ads, things like that to let the community know what their rights are,” said Vasquez.

Judge Mark Walker pointed out the state announced at noon Tuesday it was resuming registrations immediately, then asked why it wasn’t announced at noon and opened at 5 PM till midnight, the same hours it was down.

“Certainly we know that the portals for the most part were down between five to midnight,” said Vasquez.

In the state’s larger counties, steady streams of voters are delivering their mail ballots.

Those votes are already being counted.

Leon Supervisor Mark Earley said his office has never been this busy so far from election day.

“No. Just plain old no. This is good,” said Earley.

Earley and Okaloosa Supervisor Paul Lux both filed affidavits warning if registration were reopened would overload their already busy offices and confuse voters.

The Judge is expected to rule Thursday afternoon or evening.

He said he would not entertain a stay, opening the way for whomever loses to immediately file an appeal.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity says it wrongly or over paid unemployment benefits to Floridians and is now attempting to recoup the money.

Florida Democrats are condemning the Department’s actions and have unveiled their plan to fix the state’s unemployment system ahead of the 2021 legislative session.

DEO won’t reveal how much money it incorrectly paid out, or how many people are being asked to pay back their unemployment benefits.

Democrats in a virtual press conference Thursday said the Department should be focusing its energy elsewhere.

“1.992 million people that still have not gotten an answer, not gotten paid. This is completely unacceptable,” said State Senator Annette Taddeo.

In the press conference, Democrats unveiled their plan to improve the system.

“We’re trying to set the bar as to what we ought to do as a state with our unemployment system,” said State Senator Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez.

Their bill would raise weekly benefits from a max of $275 to $500 and increase the number of eligible weeks from 12 to 26.

“That would put us roughly a little bit above average in terms of how we would compare with other states. So it’s not that ambitious a goal,” said Rodriguez.

Democrats’ plan would also allow self employed and gig workers to receive benefits.

It also would expand eligibility to people who leave their jobs due to illness, domestic violence, changes in their schedule, extended commutes and unsafe or unhealthy work environments.

“We want to make sure that this is fair for everyone, fair for the employees, and we want to provide the guidance on ‘good cause’,” said State Senator Lori Berman.

The bill also requires DEO to make a determination on a person’s eligibility within three weeks of applying for unemployment and creates an ombudsman position at DEO, that would be responsible for streamlining the unemployment system.

Despite a plague of issues at the start of the pandemic, DEO has paid more than $17 billion in unemployment this year.

Last year, the number was just over 300 million.

The Florida GOP is happy with Vice President Mike Pence’s performance during the Wednesday night debate.

Pence contrasted the Trump team’s policies on energy, the economy, healthcare and foreign relations with those of the Biden campaign.

Florida GOP Executive Director Helen Ferre said she believe’s the Vice President’s hardline stance against socialism will resonate most with Florida Voters.

“Many people here have fled from socialism and understand that it brings destruction. Economic, political and personal destruction. It destroys families. We don’t need that. We don’t need mob rule either. We don’t need Kamala Harris defending looters and rioters who have hurt private sector and innocent bystanders and in addition to that, law enforcement,” said Ferre.

Ferre also criticized Kamala Harris for not answering whether Biden would pack the US Supreme Court if elected and for saying she and Biden would not ban fracking, despite both having said the opposite in previous statements.

If you had trouble registering to vote after the state website crashed Monday evening and didn’t take advantage of a seven hour extension granted Tuesday, there’s a 50/50 chance you may get another opportunity.

A federal judge wants to see hard data on who was impacted by the crash.

With seven hours remaining to register to vote Monday afternoon, the state voter registration website slowed down.

Officials said it received 1.1 million hits an hour fo the next six hours.

On Tuesday, the state extended registration by seven hours.

“We had about 740 or 50,” said Leon County Elections Supervisors when asked how many people registered in his county during the extension.

Earley said few complained.

“We only had five complaints on Tuesday about the inability to use the online voter registration portal,” said Earley.

Several voting rights groups filed suit to extend registration even longer.

Federal Judge Mark Walker late Tuesday denied a motion to extend registration.

At 8:30 Wednesday he heard from both sides.

Walker told the state he wanted hard data, saying he wanted to “put meat on the bone” asking what was the volume of registrations before and after the crash, how many registered during the extension and more.

Lawyers for the state told the judge they needed all day Wednesday to gather the data that he wanted.

They were able to report that about 40,000 people registered during the seven hour extension Tuesday.

The judge also also asked for a drop dead date when the state could no longer process registrations for November voting.

Again the state wasn’t sure.

But Supervisor Earley said he didn’t foresee a problem.

“As long as it doesn’t extend too long, of course. We have the ability to process those if they come in,” said Earley.

Depending on how long registration period is extended, if at all, some voters might now be able to early vote when it opens on the 19th.

The judge will hear the case at 8 AM Thursday.

Neither side said it would call witnesses, but the judge specifically asked for the Director of the State Division of Elections.

The fate of the state’s medical marijuana regulatory structure lies in the hands of the Florida Supreme Court, which on Wednesday heard a legal challenge brought by Florigrown for a second time.

The company alleges the state’s law favored some businesses getting licenses over others.

The court must now decide whether that’s true.

22 growers licenses have been issued since voters approved medical marijuana in 2016.

“This is everything but a free market. It has created a monopoly,” said Florigrown Attorney Katherine Giddings.

Giddings argued the law that implemented the 2016 constitutional amendment carved out a special class, specifically designed to put those companies first in line.

“The Legislature might as well just have named them in the statute,” said Giddings.

The Department of Health argued Florigrown hasn’t received one of the 11 available licenses because they didn’t qualify.

“If Florigrown met the statutory requirements, including vertical integration, it certainly could apply for one of those 11 remaining licenses,” said DOH attorney Joe Jacquot.

The Department of Health said the only reason it hasn’t begun issuing those available licenses is because of the pending litigation.

“Hopefully we can get some clarity and reopen that application process,” said Jacquot.

Also at issue in the case is whether the it’s constitutional for the state to require medical marijuana license holders to control everything from seed to sale.

If the court does rule in Florigrown’s favor on that issue, it could open up the market to individual retailers, growers and distributors.

The Department of Health argued the seed to sale model of the medical marijuana industry is essential to ensuring a safe and quality product, a requirement it contends is explicitly laid out in the 2016 amendment.

Jeff Sharkey with the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida said regardless of how the court rules, the conclusion of the lawsuit will benefit patients.

“There will be more competition. There will be more diversity. There will be more affordability for these products and more products,” said Sharkey.

Whether 11 new companies enter the marketplace or many more, rests in the hands of the justices.

Hundreds of thousands people behind on their electric bills could face having their power cutoff after state utility regulators said no to a plan Tuesday that would have prevented the cutoffs until the end of the year.

The utilities assert cutting someone’s power in a pandemic is their last option.

As many as 600,000 utility customers behind on their payments are now eligible to have their power cut.

At a virtual meeting, activists asked the Florida Public Service Commission to profit cutoffs until at least the end of the year.

“Most states in the U.S. have some sort of protection to prevent customers from being disconnected from their power as a result of this pandemic. Florida is one of only 15 states that does not. No family should be forced to go without power,” said Zach Cosner with Florida Conservation Voters.

Under the proposed emergency order, customers in arrears would have to provide documentation they were impacted by COVID and couldn’t pay.

The utilities’ message: Call us now if you are behind. Don’t wait until we send you a notice we’re cutting off your power.

“Bill payment assistance is available now but may not in the future. The proposed rule may also allow past due balances to grow to the point where they become ultimately unmanageable for our customers,” said Jeff Wahlen, an attorney with Tampa Electric.

In the end, Public Service Commissioner Donald Polmann said just because utilities can now cut off power, it doesn’t mean they should

“We are not saying that disconnections are an appropriate thing to do,” said Polmann.

Earth Justice attorney Jacob Luebkemann said many are now at risk.

“Not having electricity means you don’t have air conditioning and that can be totally dangerous for people that are having chronic illness. That are vulnerable populations whether they be the elderly or the very young,” said Luebkemann.

Earth Justice and others said they will keep looking for ways to help people in need keep the lights on.

Florida Power and Light, Gulf Power, TECO, and Duke energy Florida all said cutoffs were a last resort.

FPL said it is offering up to $200 credits when people who can’t pay find a way.

Its sister company, Gulf Power, does not have the same credits.

Florida’s online voter registration portal was down for about seven hours yesterday after the site began experiencing an unprecedented 1.1 million requests per hour on the final day to register for the November Election.

The state has extended the window until 7 pm Tuesday, but it falls short of the requests made by progressive groups and Florida Democrats.

Hopeful voters trying to register on the state’s site were met with error messages and pages failing to load in the final hours of the last day to register for the November Election.

“Voters were harmed by what happened yesterday,” said Brad Ashwell with All Voting is Local.

And it’s not the first time the site has experienced issues.

“Before the book closing in 2018 for the Primary and the General it broke down,” said Ashwell.

In a release issued Tuesday, the Florida Secretary of State said an unprecedented 1.1 million requests an hour caused the crash.

“The onus is on the system to be working,” said Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried.

Fried sent a letter to the Governor Tuesday morning requesting the registration widow be extended by 24 hours.

“With enough notice that we are in fact extending it. Cause again, if we extend it now for three hours without notifying people then they will have missed that opportunity,” said Fried.

All Voting is Local was part of a coalition of 34 progressive groups asked for a two day extension.

“There are a lot of questions still whether the site is even ready… The call for two days really should extend to the time we know the site is fully functional,” said Ashwell.

It wasn’t until noon Tuesday that the Secretary of State extended the registration window until 7 PM, leaving only a seven hour window to register.

Governor Ron DeSantis noted you also have that time to register in person at the DMV, Tax Collector or Elections Supervisor’s office.

“We really think it’s important that there also be live people that can help and that it’s not just internet or nothing,” said DeSantis.

You can also mail in a paper application to your local supervisor of elections office.

It will still be counted as long as it is postmarked by October 6th.

And the Secretary of State said in her Tuesday release that state and federal law enforcement are investigating the incident to ensure there was no deliberate attempt to crash the site.

We asked if any improvements have been made to prevent another bottle neck Tuesday night, but did not receive a response.

When the pandemic began domestic violence shelters feared violence would sharply increase because of lock downs and other measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The shelters now are reporting an increase in the severity of abuse.

In the Big Bend region of the panhandle there have been six murders related to domestic violence this year, compared to just two the year before.

“Not only is the number of attacks increasing, but the severity of those attacks,” said Meg Baldwin, Executive Director of Refuge House.

Baldwin believes the pandemic is likely a factor.

“The level of isolation of the victims, the degree of contact the victims and abusers are having,” said Baldwin.

Hubbard House CEO Dr. Gail Patin told us Jacksonville has also seen an uptick.

“In just one week we saw two related, one murder and one murder attempt by gun shot, due to domestic violence,” said Patin.

Mindy Murphy, President & CEO of The Spring of Tampa Bay said in her area only 5 percent of domestic violence incidents involved a weapon in August of 2019.

In August of this year, that number jumped to 23 percent.

“And my staff member who reads the reports, I mean she used the term sadistic. She said there’s an element of just, it’s almost sadistic the intensity of the violence that’s being perpetrated against survivors,” said Murphy.

The pandemic has also led to another issue,.

Survivors are less likely seek refuge at a shelter because they fear exposing themselves to the virus.

But shelters told us they’ve beefed up their ability to help survivors remotely.

“So don’t worry that if you’re concerned about shelters, that that’s the only resource we have available,” said Baldwin.

The shelters are asking people to share information about their local domestic violence shelter on social media to raise awareness.

If you or someone you know is being abused, call the Statewide Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-500-1119.

If you are not happy with choosing between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, voters have at least five other other choices this November.

Nearly 300,000 Florida voters chose someone other than the two mainstream candidates four years ago.

In 2016, Donald Trump bested Hillary Clinton in Florida by just under 113,000 votes.

Yet 3.1 percent voted for other candidates or write ins.

Howie Hawkins is running as the Green Party’s nominee.

“Over 80 percent of the people want a green new deal to deal with the climate crisis, including 64 percent of Republicans. That’s been the Green Party’s signature issue for the last decade,” said Hawkins.

This year, 13 candidates have officially signed up to run for President in Florida.

In addition to the Greens, you can choose the Socialists.

“Who are fighting a system that makes the rich ultra rich, while the people are suffering,” said Socialist Party candidate Gloria LaRiva in a campaign video.

The Libertarians.

“If we all vote for what we wanted, then we would get what we wanted,” said Libertarian candidate Joe Jorgensen in a video posted on her campaign website.

The Constitution Party or the Reform Party.

“He became troubled by the broken state of politics in our country,” said Reform Party Candidate Rocky De La Fuente in his campaign ad.

And if none of those are your cup of tea, you can write in someone like Dennis Ball.

“It’s just a real amount of change I believe needs to happen,” said Ball.

Some run to be spoilers.

Others say we need more voices.

“In about 40 of the 50 states the Presidential vote we get determines if we have a ballot line going forward. And it makes it a lot easier for our candidates to run down ballot races. Local offices. State offices. Congress,” said Hawkins.

Third Party candidates can change the outcome.

In the contested 2000 election, Ralph Nader siphoned off 97,000 votes in a race that was decided by 537 votes.

A total of seven candidates names appear on this year’s ballot.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden and five other third party candidates.

Six more have qualified as “write In” candidates.

The Department of Health is providing some clarity on the report it published earlier this week on COVID cases in schools and universities.

We’ve been pushing for answers from DOH this week and found the report uses different data than school districts when listing cases.

When we first looked at the state’s COVID in schools report we noticed the numbers didn’t align with local districts’ data.

Some schools were missing entirely.

The Florida Education Association is pushing for more transparency.

“It’s not a comprehensive report. It is not being laid out in a user friendly way,” said FEA President Andrew Spar.

We looked at two districts to see how their reporting compared to the state’s.

The Duval school district reported 75 cases between September 6th and 26th, while the state reported 91.

In Leon, the district reported 64 cases.

The state only reported 40.

“And it’s really on the Governor’s shoulders to make sure that he’s telling the truth, that he is choosing to provide information that is clear, understandable and direct,” said Spar.

We were told by a Department of Health Official that the Department independently collects its data through labs and its own investigations, not from the districts.

It also only reports schools that have identified a positive case.

On the university front, the state’s numbers align fairly well with what the universities have tracked.

Marshall Ogletree with the United Faculty of Florida said regardless of which data set you use, he and other university staff are worried by the figures they’re seeing.

“Most universities have seen a spike and surge,” said Ogletree.

It’s important to note the state’s numbers don’t cover the entire school year and will only be updated once a week.

For the most accurate picture on a day to day basis, education advocates we spoke with recommend checking you’re district’s dashboard.

While we were able to get some clarity on the report through conversations with Department of Health Officials, we have not yet received an official statement from the department since we first sent a list of questions Wednesday morning.

Thursday marked the start of 2020’s fourth quarter and that means everyone receiving unemployment benefits must check back in with the state to conform they are still unemployed.

Some glitches are still plaguing the system.

An estimated 400,000 people are being required to log in to the CONNECT reemployment system to continue their benefits.

The check in is required by federal law.

In this video available online, DEO walks claimants through the process.

By all accounts, the technical part of the system is working, unlike past quarter changes in April and June, when the system was overwhelmed.

But people like shuttle bus driver Caroline Carnegie are having trouble getting answers when she signs on.

“And I tried numerous times up until about eight o’clock at night. And I just could not get in there to locate my weeks that I have been missing,” said Carnegie.

Caroline isn’t the only one.

Gianmany Rodriguez cant afford shampoo, laundry detergent and a whole lot more.

“I have two credit cards that are maxed out,” said Rodriguez.

Gianmany received some benefits, then went back to a two day training session and his benefits stopped.

“I was eligible, but since I had the return to work, they just assumed I was working the whole time,” said Rodriguez.

And because federal benefits expire before the end of the year, this will be the last time claimants will have to do a quarterly checkin, they are extended.

Gianmany told us he starts a new hotel job Thursday night.

Caroline plans to serve as a poll worker during early voting and on Election Day to make ends meet.

But both want the benefits they have coming to catch up on their bills.