'There's Something Going On In Florida- I Voted Here Today'

[appalachiablue]

"There's something going on in Florida - I voted here today." Wed., August 19, 2020 · 12:18 AM EDT



- Sometimes you walk out in your front yard and you see this, when you live in Florida. -


I live in Alachua County, Florida, just outside of the city of Gainesville. Gainesville is where the University of Florida is. Sports fans may have heard of it. Alachua County is one of only a handful of counties in Florida that is reliably blue.
I’m here to tell you, though, blue in Florida doesn’t mean what it means in other states.

Anyway, we had an election today, and the voters changed everything. One of our longest serving county commissioners, who is not at all warm or charming but is brilliant at making the commission think before acting, was ousted by a long term progressive activist whom I respect. Also, our white female sheriff who had done, I would say, an amazingly good job being her 4’10” self and commanding statewide respect from the male dominated law enforcement community, was replaced by a black male sheriff with a long history of social justice advocacy whom I also trust will do a good job.

I didn’t vote for either of those winners, but I am more than okay that they won. I’d be lying if I said the change isn’t a little unsettling, but I know I had the rare luxury of voting for my favorites among really, really good candidates.
I struggled with my vote, and I’m psyched for our future.

When I went to the polls today, I was surprised at the turnout for a local election, and the greeter lady told me that turnout was unusually high and she’d seen more 18, 19, and 20 year olds voting than she ever had. I’m hoping that’s a good portent for November. This is Florida, right? Every single vote matters. --

- 502 Recs, 194 Comments,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/18/1970513/-There-s-something-going-on-in-Florida-I-voted-here-today

[SheltieLover]

1. Ty for sharing!

[dchill]

2. As a sometime Florida resident, I wish you luck!

[Native]

3. I really needed to hear this. Thanks!

[appalachiablue]

6. YW, it's terrific I thought as well.

[underthematrix]

4. I love this post. Thank you so much.

First, it gives us hope - very high turnout of voters especially young voters. Second, you let us know you trusted the process when you said I didn't vote fr the winners but I think they will do a good job. Thank you

[appalachiablue]

8. Great post, couldn't resist sharing the hopeful news, more!

[appalachiablue]

5. *SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE ARTICLE:*

* Miami Herald has this lede: Fueled by mail ballots, Florida voters showed up this summer in remarkable numbers, turning out amid a pandemic at the highest rate seen in a presidential-year August primary since 1992.

More than 3.8 million voters participated in Tuesday’s election, according to data posted late.

US Election project has Florida’s midterm election participation at 54.3%, with 8,318,824 ballots cast.
________

* My son is a UF student and was one of those young voters yesterday. He’ll be back in November! He belongs to the Gator Democratic Club. They are doing their best to get the vote out.
________

* Re “I don’t know what happened to kids later.”

As one of those later kids, I was born in 1983 and graduated high school mere months before 9/11, I have a few ideas:

- the GOP’s decades long war on education in general and civics in particular
- the skyrocketing cost of higher education
- all out attacks on science and rational thinking and decision making
- voter suppression through things like restrictive voter id laws and restrictions on the use of absentee ballots
- economic problems that make it much harder for many young people to really focus on anything other than making ends meet
- being sold the absolute bill of goods that if we just worked hard and got an education that we’d be ok and would be able to have a good life
- being constantly told by media and some older people that our generations are lazy entitled idiots who don’t know anything about the real world and we should just keep our mouths shut and be thankful for what little we have despite hearing about the activism of older generations, seeing how little has actually changed and how much has gotten worse

- Coincidentally, those same factors would impact virtually every group in our country that’s out of power.

** - The single biggest problem with youth participation that I see is that we (as a whole) aren’t setting our youth up to participate in our democracy from the beginning, and when they do participate, they’re frequently denigrated and insulted.

People can react to that in one of two ways, they can either get discouraged and drop out of the democratic process, OR they can use all of that as motivation to participate in making change a reality.

We need an all hands on deck push to get our youth to choose that second option, not because its the politically expedient thing to do for our party, but because its the morally right thing to do for our country.

* (A+ analysis & comment)

[MaryMagdaline]

7. Broward and Dade both set primary records

Biggest primary turnout in Broward since 1980

[appalachiablue]

9. Excellent! Way to go Sunshine State!

[Doreen]

10. There is hope.

[lagomorph777]

11. Lots of young voters is a VERY good thing!