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In addition to picking a Presidential candidate next Tuesday, voters in two rural counties will vote on whether to allow slot machines at dog and horse racing tracks. Gadsden is a liberal Democratic County, While Washington is a conservative Republican stronghold. The outcome Tuesday could impact the casino debate at the state legislature.

Chattahoochee Florida is reeling. When 300 jobs were lost at the state mental institution last year, The IGA across the street closed. Empty buildings litter downtown. Another 77 jobs are slated to leave when the state closes this prison work camp.

On Tuesday, voters will decide whether to legalize slot machines at a newly opened barrel racing track. The promise; 15 hundred new jobs.

Voter Laura Smith is pragmatic. “If this going to bring jobs to Gadsden County I’m not against it.”

In this heavily Democratic county, interest is running high. So far more than 1300 people in this small county have voted early and another 800 have returned absentee ballots.

Realtor Dick D’Alemberte early voted on Wednesday. He voted yes. We asked why. “For the economy.  We are really hurting for Gadsden County,” says D’Alemberte.

In the last two weeks, churches here have mounted a church by church campaign against slots. Howard Adams works for all the Baptist churches in the county and says “A lot of our signs says don’t gamble with our children’s future and we feel that very strongly.”

An estimated seven to eight thousand voters are expected to vote.

And how the vote goes here and in nearby Washington County could help determine how lawmakers vote on expanded gambling.

Should the slot machine referendums pass in either Washington or Gadsden County, a legal challenge is a certainty, because the Attorney General has issued an opinion which says the state has no authority to issue slot machine permits without new legislative authority.

Children of illegal immigrants born in Florida are asking lawmakers to lower their college tuition. They’re paying out-of-state tuition, even though they’re US citizens. As Whitney Ray tells us, legislation to give the students in-state tuition has been filed, but isn’t going anywhere.

18 year old Renato Lherisson doesn’t want to be here at the state capitol. He’d rather be in school, but he can’t afford it.

“I was born in Florida. I went to high school in Florida. I want to go to college in Florida. I want to work in Florida. (slight sob) I’m sorry,” said Renato.

Renato is a US citizen born in Miami. He moved to Haiti after his father died and moved back after the 2010 earthquake. But since Renato’s is the son of illegal immigrants, if he wants to go to a state school, he’ll have to pay out-of-state tuition and right now. He can’t afford it. So he’s sitting this year out.

“I applied like everybody else expecting that I would be paying instate fees and then they told me I would have to pay three times the amount,” said Renato.

State legislation to allow Renato and other US citizens with illegal immigrant parents to pay instate tuition has been filed, but isn’t being heard.

“It is unfair, it isn’t right and this legislature should take action,” said Rep. Hazelle Rogers.

The chairman of the House Education Committee says he’s willing to give it shot, if a subcommittee vets it first.

“If it comes through the process, then in all probability we would,” said Chairman Bill Proctor.

Another, more controversial piece of legislation, would give instate tuition rates to anyone who spent three years in a Florida public school and graduated. Another obstacle facing Renato and other US citizens with illegal immigrant parents is student loans. The loans won’t cover out-of-state tuition.

A bill to allow schools to raise money by turning their buses into billboards is headed to the house floor. Selling ad space on buses could raise between 60 and 100 million dollars for education annually. The bill’s sponsor, Irv Slosberg, says the money is badly needed because the state is facing a two billion dollar budget shortfall.

“We can get three thousand to five thousand dollars a bus and we’re not wrapping the buses, it’s only two feet by six feet size, federal standards,” said Slosberg.

Representative Luis Garcia voted against the bill. He says the state shouldn’t be exposing students to advertising during school hours.

If approved by both chambers and signed by the governor, then local school boards would have the final say on selling ad space. Alcohol and tobacco companies would be prohibited from buying bus space.

If the general election were today Mitt Romney and President Obama would be neck and neck, according to a new poll. Quinnipiac Pollsters say both Romney and Obama would pull 45 percent of the vote in a head to head match up. If Newt Gingrich were the nominee, Obama would win 50 to 39 the poll predicts. Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist who helped Obama win Florida in 2008, says the primary is taking its toll on all the GOP candidates.

“The longer these guys push each other to the right, the longer they look like extremists. The longer they get personal with each other the better it is for Barack Obama as the economy continues to improve a little bit and people feel better about the direction of the country,” said Shale.

Some Republican strategists say the long primary makes the candidates stronger because they have more time to vet their ideas and hear from voters. The GOP candidates have their final Florida debate tonight in Jacksonville.

Hundreds of college students are asking lawmakers to fund higher education. The students traveled from all over Florida today to rally at the state capitol. Alex Castro is a sophomore from Florida International University. Castro, like many other Florida students, says the legislature is making it hard for them to pay for school.

“They are cutting Bright Futures and then they are raising tuition. So it’s a double negatives and it’s not going to help families and students,” said Castro.

Other students in the rally voiced their concerns over Florida’s new voting law. They say it is too restrictive and limits early voting as well as registration drivers. A congressional hearing will be held on the new law Friday in Tampa.

GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum is about to wrap up his Florida campaign. He was in Tallahassee today at Florida State University. Santorum is currently in third place in Florida according to recent polls. He’s lacked the money to buy TV ads, so before the Tuesday primary, Santorum is heading west to being campaigning in cheaper states.

“This race is changing every few weeks. It’s going to change again and what we need to do is be out there sounding a very strong consistent message,” said Santorum.

Santorum, who won the Iowa caucus, says he’s not dropping out of the race regardless of how he finishes in Florida.

Animal rights activists won a victory in the state legislature today as agricultural powerhouses dropped a plan to make it a crime to videotape on farms. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, activists say the legislation could have kept animal abuse secret and put human consumers at risk.

The photographer who took these pictures could have been guilty of a misdemeanor under legislation that was moving through the state legislature. But after pressure from animal rights activists, big agriculture threw in the towel.

“It has caused a lot of consternation and clouded the rest of Rep. Albritton’s good bill,” Rep. Ray Pilon (R-Sarasota) said.

With that vote, the criminal penalty was pulled out of the bill, leaving provisions on storm water run off and others intact and without opposition.

It was undercover video’s like these that prompted the legislation

After public pressure, Cattlemen reversed themselves on Monday. Wednesday it was the poultry producers doing a turn around.

“The Humane Society of the United States came to an agreement on some federal legislation that would deal with the poultry industry, so that we’re not dealing with regulations for the poultry industry state by state,” Florida Poultry Association representative Nancy Spencer said.

Undercover operations are rare, but The Humane Society of the United States says that without the ability to conduct them, proving abuse would be near impossible.

“When investigations have been done, they’ve brought to light things that needed to be known and brought to light, so we hope we never see this bill again,” Laura Bevan with the Humane Society of the United States said.

Hundreds of people had written lawmakers protesting the criminal charges.

Florida’s presidential primary is Tuesday, but voter upset with the outcome will get another shot. The first ever nationwide online primary will be held in April. Everyone can vote regardless of their party affiliation and as Whitney Ray tells us, the winner will end up on the ballot in Florida.

Florida’s primary is a dead heat according to a Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday.

“Mitt Romney has 36 percent, to 34 percent for Newt Gingrich,” said Pollster Peter Brown.

But if Floridians aren’t satisfied with the outcome, they’ll have another shot at it.

“Welcome to Americans Elect. For the first time the American people are choosing a leader who works for us, not just the parties and their special interests,” says the narrator in an Americans Elect promotional video.

Americans Elect will host is the first even online nationwide presidential primary in April.

The group qualified for the ballot in Florida and 13 other states. They plan to be on all the ballots by the general election in November.

“We the people are choosing the candidates and we the people are nominating a third choice for President,” the Narrator continues.

Americans Elect National Field Director Kellen Arno says most voters don’t feel like the two major parties have their best interests in mind.

“They are frustrated at both sides and so what we really felt is that, using technology, we could create a mechanism that, really I think, helped create a tool for them to feel directly represented,” said Arno.

Americans Elect was in Tallahassee Wednesday. They’re signing up delegates. Ben Stearns is just one of 450-thousand delegates nationwide.

“Everybody in the nation gets the same vote at the same time, one person, one vote. I think that is a big step towards affecting our process,” said Stearns.

Any registered US voter can nominate a candidate. The nominee is allowed to pick their own running mate, as long as he or she belongs to a different party. Americans Elect has collected nearly 2.4 million signatures. That’s more than half of the number of signatures needed to put a candidate on the ballot in all 50 states.

Pharmacists in Florida can give flu shots but other vaccinations are off limits.

Hundreds of pharmacists and pharmacy students were at the state capitol today rallying for the right to administer shingles and pneumonia vaccines. Legislation to give them the right is being sponsored by Representative Ana Logan. Her bill passed a House committee earlier today.

“A number of individuals that could be saved from a lifetime of shingles or cost and the adverse reaction to pneumonia is definitely important at this time,” said Logan.

Currently 40 states allow pharmacists to administer shingles shots and 45 allow them to give pneumonia vaccinations.

Hispanic students who came to Florida as teenagers are asking lawmakers for instate college tuition.

They were in the state capitol today supporting a bill that would allow anyone who attended three years in a Florida public school to pay instate tuition. Estaban Roncancio was brought to Florida by his parents when he was 14. He graduated from a Miami high school but had to sit out a year to earn money to cover out-of-state tuition to Miami-Dade College.

“I had to wait a whole year because I didn’t have any money to go to school. So I had to save money to be able to pay 5-thouand dollars a semester at community college,” said Estaban.

The instate college tuition bill has yet to receive a committee hearing.