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Florida is on pace for record early voting turnout, and as Matt Galka tells us, both sides say the early numbers are good for their parties.

Becky Bush wasn’t going to wait around. She voted early.

“I work downtown and it’s convenient,” she said.

And to her, this election cycle is “crazy.” So crazy that she voted opposite of her registered party.

“I look at the candidates, I look at the issues, and I vote my conscience. I don’t always vote with party,” she said.

More than two million people have already voted early in the state.  Republicans have cast about 5,000 more ballots. Not every county has early voting open right now but must open their early voting polls by the 29^th.

Leon County GOP chairman Evan Power says the best is yet to come.

“From the Republican standpoint, early voting’s never been a strong point, some of our most hardcore voters vote on election day no matter what we try to do,” he said.

But Democratic strategist Steve Schale says they’re ahead of the game.

“Today in 2012 they were up by about 4.5 percent, today we’re basically tied. Based on where we should be, where we typically are at this point in the election, I feel very good,” he said.

Nearly five million people voted early or by mail in 2012…a record that’s expected to be shattered this year.

Each of Florida’s  five statewide elected Republicans continue to support Donald Trump. But not all of them are jumping whole hog on the Trump Train.

Governor Rick Scott was the first statewide elected Republican to jump on the trump train.   He was followed by Pam Bondi, Jeff Atwater, and Adam Putnam. All three supported Jeb Bush and only adopted Trump after the primary.

Bondi now calls calls some comments Made by Trump

“Disgusting. period” says Bondi. But she remains strongly behind the Donald, based on who he says he will appoint to the US Supreme Court

“He will appoint conservative justices” Bondi told us.

After backing Bush, Atwater and Putnam both say they will vote for Trump, but neither is working overtime for his election.

“I haven’t been asked to be included and we’ve been plenty busy but if the occasion presents itself, we’re committee to helping republicans get elected across Florida”

Q:So if you were asked you would not shy away from going to a Trump event?”

“No, no, I wouldn’t” Atwater said Tuesday, hours before Trump arrived in the Capitol City.

Governor Rick Scott still heads Trumps  fundraising efforts, but he has made few appearances with the candidate, and won’t be at Trump’s Tallahassee rally Tuesday night.

“I’m focused right now on, we’ve got the Zika, we’ve got, um, I’m trying to figure out the things we can do better in case we have another hurricane. That’s my primary focus right now.”

Rick Scott appears to be running for a higher office, and when it comes to Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, it’s pretty clear he wants to be Governor. But when it comes to the CFO and the Attorney General, well, their political future is somewhat murky.

US Senator Marco Rubio also calls Trump the best alternative to Hillary Clinton, but has dodged appearances with the Donald.

New polling suggests Hillary Clinton leads Donald trump in Florida by only two percentage points.

If you are going to be renewing your driver’s license or vehicles tags in the near future, you might want to budget some extra time, just in case, because aging computers at the state agency have become unpredictable.

Taking a number at a Tax Collectors officer doesn’t guarantee you speedy service when you are renewing your drivers license or vehicle tag.  An aging state computer server has been crashing, putting motorists and clerks like Andrea Daughtry in limbo.

“It come can come back on in a minute, it can come back on in an hour, it can come back on in five hours” says Daughtry.

When it works, it works. “ten minutes, maybe” said one customer when asked how long it tool to renew her drivers license.

But Tax Collector Doris Maloy says the crashes are happening with more frequency.

“We’ve know for years that they have an outdated system. They are very sorry, of course, that this is happening. It couldn’t happen at a worse time” says Maloy

And the Tax Collectors, many of whom are running for re-election, are quick to point out that this is the state’s problem, not theirs.”

The problem has been on going, but got worse back in April. That’s when the state decided to move its computer center out to this bat infested office complex, says the head of the Department of Highway Safety.”

“I think that’s what initiated the, you know, pretty quick or consistent outages for awhile” says Rhodes.

Lawmakers have already given the agency six point five million to upgrade its computers, but rhodes says replacement is taking time.

“I’m constantly on it and so they systems are working now, but we just confident that we can keep everything going” she says.

The new equipment isn’t expected to be to be up and running until next June, making a sign in one office proclaiming “Quick and Easy Service” questionable.

In a statement released this afternoon, the Department says in part:

“the number of department customers continues to grow each day and, on average, the department and its partners process more than six million inquiries and 2.5 million driver license, registration and title transactions each month. We are working as fast as we can to get the system replaced with a newer, more stable environment” (Beth Frady, Communications Director, DHSMV

In two weeks we should know who the next president of the United States is, and that means Florida becomes that much more valuable to the candidates. Matt Galka was in Tallahassee for Donald Trump’s rally in the capital…a unique choice for a GOP candidate to head into a perennially Democrat voting county.

The trump train rolled into the state Capitol Tuesday night, but not before Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi sang the businessman’s praises.

“Donald Trump is my friend, Donald Trump is a good man, and Donald Trump is going to make America great again,” said Bondi to the crowd.

Trump took the stage around 6:30 p.m. to a loud ovation from the crowd of about 10,000 and he came out swinging.

He promised to replace and repeal Obamacare, bring back jobs, and said that anyone voting for his opponent Hillary Clinton was “crazy.”

Leon County is almost always blue, and hasn’t voted for a Republican president since 1988. But Trump’s message resonated with the crowd.

“Our country is just in a downward spiral, and we just cannot afford four more years of that,” said Mark Bacon who traveled from nearby Panacea, FL.

“People talk sometimes, but I’m still for Trump and I still believe everything that he says and does and I want those jobs, and I don’t want to be handed anything in life, I want to work for my things,” said Florida State University senior Kristyn Caltagirone.

The stop wraps up a whirlwind tour of the state for Trump. He was in Sanford and Doral earlier in the day.

Governor Rick Scott did not attend the rally. Trump exits Florida and plans on being in Washington, D.C. Wednesday morning for the grand opening of his new hotel.

In this time of political strife, questions about secure borders and a wall between the US and Mexico, Mike Vasilinda has a story about a mass migration that won’t give you heartburn.

The majestic monarch. Millions are on their way to Mexico. And year after year, one of their favorite resting places is here in St. Marks along the Big Bend of Florida.

Normally, the monarchs live just a month, but a hormone kicks in when the temperature drops, extending their live to seven or 8 months, making the migration to Mexico possible.

“I got one. Oh No” exclaimed Victoria Benson of Lakeland as we watched.

The butterflies attracted these two Polk County high schoolers. they’ve been coming since 2012, conducting a science experiment:

“We can tag that one, we haven’t tagged that one” Victoria told friend Taylor OByrne as the two dabbed at a butterfly’s stomach.

The are measuring levels of a Protozoan that caterpillars ingest from Milkweed and carry into adulthood as a butterfly.

“A lot of Farmers are applying more pesticides and everything to their crops and killing Milk weed because it is invasive, so when there is no milkweed, they have no where to go, no where to eat” taylor told us.

Victoria chimed in as well.  And without the small areas of the food web and without pollination stuff, we;’re not going to have what we can, so we need to do what we can to save our environment.”

In year’s past, these trees have actually appeared more black and orange than green from hndreds, even thousands of animals.

Cheryl Lachance says this year’s crop small. Really small.

“See the canopy on this one here where you have a few of them, times it by about twenty, thirty.”

The butterflies return in the spring, lay their eggs, and then die, only to leave next years migration to a new generation of monarchs.

The butterflies normally hand around the wildlife refuge through the middle of November, depending on the temperature. When they leave, they will follow th gulf coast into Texas and then Mexico.

State leaders want to ramp up counterterrorism efforts, but as Matt Galka tells us, it starts with an old slogan and you.

This gas station in Tallahassee doesn’t seem like where state officials would launch counterterrorism efforts. But the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Homeland Security, and local law enforcement say it’s just the place where preventing the next attack could start.

“We have a litany of examples where individual citizens could have made a difference but just for whatever reason didn’t mention it to law enforcement,” said Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

State and local leaders are putting a new emphasis on “If you see something, say something.” A slogan that went mainstream after 9-11.

Stickers will start going up on gas pumps around Florida as a reminder to people to report suspicious activity.

FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen says people may be complacent, or too afraid, to help out.

“It could be they’re afraid of…there’s a culture of political correctness here, maybe they’re afraid they’re reporting something that’s really nothing, I don’t really know. But all we’re saying is, if you see something suspicious, if you’re gut tells you something is wrong, report it. That’s our job to determine if there’s something there or it really was nothing,” he said.

The initiative is part of an overall counterterrorism plan FDLE is shaping.  The Department is requesting an additional $6.2 million dollars next year to create 46 new counterterrorism positions.

Swearingen

“I certainly hope all those people will be busy with the amount of tips that come in.”

The Department said there are no specific threats that inspired the extra emphasis on the “if you see something, say something” campaign

In a time of big money campaigns, volunteers in one Florida Congressional race are a real throwback. As Matt Galka tells us, some folks are getting crafty when it comes to yard signs.

Meet Herb Shelton. He’s not running for anything so don’t expect to see his name on the ballot. But Shelton has become a big part of one Congressional campaign.

Shelton has been hand painting signs for Congressional District 2 Democrat Walter Dartland.  Shelton recycles old signs used for previous campaigns and paints over them.

“If somebody wants to discard em, it’s not coming out of my pocket, it’s not coming out of his pocket, it doesn’t cost anything,” he said.

And he did it without any prompting from Dartland. Shelton just noticed there were no signs around town.

“He was kinda thrilled, I mean he thought it was really something that some people thought that much of him, I mean how many people do you see out there painting signs for their candidate? Especially when he’s strapped, he didn’t have any,” said Shelton.

Dartland’s raised more than $100,000 for his campaign. His opponent Neal Dunn – $1.7 million. So he gladly took the help.

“They took it upon themselves, it wasn’t my urging, upon themselves to say “welp, we don’t have the money to buy any so we’ll just create them.” It’s taken off and more volunteers want to do more painting, it’s been a very successful event so more thanks to them,” said Dartland.

Shelton has put up more than 120 hand painted signs with some help of others around the district.

“Maybe this will help him in his big campaign because he is the underdog right now,” he said.

Dunn is expected to win the seat.

A lawsuit filed in Southeast Florida alleges that the medical marijuana amendment was left off some mail in ballots.  Attorneys say they aren’t sure if it was a half dozen, ten thousand or a hundred thousand ballots.

A quarter million mail ballots have gone out Broward County, 60 thousand have already been returned. At least one ballot without the medical marijuana amendment was reported last week.

Elections law expert and former Al Gore attorney from the 2000 election, Mark Herron says the first step is figuring out how widespread the mistake might be.

“So I think the court needs to figure out is the nature and scope of the problem. How broad or deep is it” says Herron.

Attorney Norman Kent filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of voter Karen Goldstein. In it, He called the consequences potential catastrophic and cataclysmic.

“Anybody who was sent out a voting ballot without amendment two on it, have immediately reissued a new ballot” Kent told us by phone.

One theory was that it was a collating error. each precinct has a different ballot style and a clerk simply grabbed the wrong page three.

If collating is the problem, Attorney Herron believes the number of bad ballots could be limited.

“But with respect to people who have  already voted, I’m not sure you can correct that problem” he says. we asked about a  recount.

Q: It is reasonable to  do a recount on all the absentee ballots that are still out and see if that question is there?”

Heron responded “I think that would be part of the effort to deal with election day counting.”

In 2014, voters in Broward approved Amendment two by the biggest margin in the state.

The Broward Supervisors office is not with out problems. In August, the office was criticized for releasing election results a half hour early. the office has also been criticized for sending out inaccurate voters cards and once printed yes in the no line of a tax referendum.

Thousands of Floridians took advantage of an extended voter registration deadline in the state, but getting them verified in time to cast a regular early voting ballot may be in doubt. As Matt Galka tells us, Florida Democrats hoped a federal judge could force the state’s hand and not make them cast provisional ballots.

Florida Democrats couldn’t go three for three in federal court. They filed a motion looking to get newly registered voters in Florida processed by Sunday – a day before early voting starts in parts of the state. The reason – they don’t want provisional ballots being cast.

“When you vote a provisional ballot, it’s not counted unless the county canvassing board approves the ballot, which is a presumption they should in the absence of proof that the voter is ineligible to vote, but obviously we’d rather vote a regular ballot if we can,” said Democratic Party lawyer Kevin Hamilton.

But federal Judge Mark Walker – the same judge who ruled in the Democrats favor in voter registration deadline and mismatching mail ballot signature lawsuits over the past two weeks – denied the motion.

A spokesman for the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections said if the ruling had gone the other way, it could have been chaotic.

“The ballot could never be brought back, because once it’s in the box, it’s gone,” said Ron Labasky. “It would create a problem if an individual who was not eligible, not on the voter roles, casting a regular ballot at early voting or a polling place, not being scrutinized and voting illegally.”

It can take up to ten days to verify new forms, meaning the state should have everyone verified by the end of the month – with early voting starting Monday.

The Department of State released data Thursday afternoon showing that around 72,000 people registered during the extended deadline. They’re increasing staff to try and get everyone verified quickly with more than 21,000 still not verified.

Some people go to bars and restaurants to get away from the noise surrounding politics – especially during this unique political season.  But as Matt Galka tells us, Florida state University is serving up heady policy discussion at a local pub.

A couple of beers, a little bit of food…and some voting issues. That’s what was on the menu for the McLeod’s at Backwoods Bistro in Tallahassee.

“A lot of the people here are from different political views, and that’s good to see,” said Susan McLeod.

They were part of the crowd at Florida State’s new program “policy pub.” The program’s mission is to engage the happy hour crowd and get them to discuss some deeper political issues. It’s even written right there on the coasters.

“It’s a fun thing, a nice little happy hour where you can discuss. No one throws rocks or chairs,” said Ken McLeod.

FSU Political scientists Robert Jackson and Brad Gomez served up some data driven analysis on voting numbers at this week’s event. They view the presentations as an opportunity to give folks a look inside the classrooms – while they enjoy a brew.

“Some of us study why people vote, but some of my colleagues study why we go to war. So those are important things and many of us don’t know what political scientists do,” said Gomez.

And the outreach is important in such a unique election cycle. With animosity seemingly at an all time high – turnout this year is a little on the unpredictable side.

“I think there are countervailing factors, some people are very hyper energized, we have other people who are discouraged or disgusted with the current climate,” said Jackson.

So maybe it’s a good thing the heavy discussion is held at a bar. After all…this election probably has more than a few people ordering one more round.

If you find yourself in Tallahassee, the next meeting is November 15^th, the week after the election, and is titled “It’s over! What Now?”

Florida’s investor owned utilities have pumped more than 15 million into Amendment one on November’s ballot. They say it protects consumers who have solar and those who don’t, but many believe it will only promote solar developed by the very companies companies pushing the amendment.

The ads are slick. “Just think one for the sun” chimes the announcer in one.

They can afford to be. Consumers for Smart Solar has amassed nearly 22 million in donations. Most of it from big utility companies. Campaign finance reports show the average contribution was 168 thousand dollars. Organizer Matt Carter is a former utility regulator and says the goal is to protect consumers.

“Protection from fraud. Protection from Sub standard equipment. Protections from scams and ripoffs” says Carter

So we asked Carter how many consumers had actually contributed.

“I don’t have that information, Mike, but its readily available.”

The answer is 12, contributing a total of 405 dollars out out 22 million raised.

A divided Supreme Court allowed the amendment on the ballot because it was nothing technically wrong with it, but in a dissent, one judge called it a wolf in sheep clothing.

The James Madison Institute is listed on the Smart Solar web site as an endorser.  Sal Nuzzo is JMI’s policy director. And in a  speech he gave in Nashville, he seems to validate the judges concerns.

“So we essentially negated what the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and all these other folks were after” say Nuzzo, referring to a competing amendment that would have allowed consumers to sell their excess energy.

Colleen Castille is the former Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. She opposes Amendment One.

“I would tell people to vote no because it limits their ability to have solar on their home or on their business” says Castille.

60 percent of Florida’s voters have to approve amendment one for it to become part of the constitution.

If the amendment is approved, consumers would be prohibited from ever selling excess energy generated by their panels, Solar could also face steep regulation, most like by the Public Service Commission, the same commission regulating utilities.

Florida is right in the middle when it comes to a new report correlating state’s gun laws and gun violence. But as Matt Galka tells us, some democrats in the state say we are going in the wrong direction.

Stricter gun laws equals less gun violence. That’s the takeaway from the Center for American Progress that ranked every state in order of how their mandates related to gun violence.

The findings: the 10 states with the loosest gun laws had more than three times the amount of gun violence than the state’s with the 10 strictest laws. Florida was 27.

But Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum says things are going in the wrong direction.

“I think it’s appropriate in this state that we take a really good, hard, strong look at the laws that we’ve enabled, or the absence thereof, that are creating the conditions, in my opinion for gun violent events that could be prevented,” he said.

And he says his hands are tied.

“In the state of Florida we pre-empt local governments from making their own decision making when it comes to keeping their community safe,” said Gillum.

But over at Talon gun range, about 20 minutes away from the Capitol, they say the laws are working. J.D. Johnson helps run the classes that allow people to get concealed carry permits.

“Florida has kind of been the trendsetter a lot of other state’s laws, like the Castle Doctrine laws, and the self defense laws in Florida, are mirrored in a lot of other states,” he said.

This isn’t Gillum’s first time taking on the gun issue. He’s currently involved in a lawsuit with the NRA and other pro-2nd amendment groups for not repealing an ordinance banning the firing of weapons in city parks.

The criteria used to measure gun violence included suicide, fatal gun accidents, gun murders, and mass shootings. Louisiana ranked worst for gun violence while Massachusetts ranked best.

Voters who mail in their ballots now have some peace of mind if they scribble their names too sloppy. As Matt Galka tells us, a federal judge made sure that people will have the chance to fix a signature mistake – and make sure their vote counts.

“The state of Florida has consistently chipped away at the right to vote,” and “this court knows disenfranchisement when it sees it and it’s obscene.”

Those are just two lines ripped from a blistering ruling from US district judge Mark Walker. He ruled against the state’s policy allowing county canvassing boards to throw out mail in ballots with mismatching signatures without providing a fix.

Missing signature voters are given the chance to fix their ballots. Leon County supervisor of elections Ion Sancho walked us through the process.

“Basically it’s developed off of the same form to cure a non-match, all we did was change a “no” signature cure, to signature cure. There’s several ways you can cure by coming in in person, you can cure by mail, you can cure by email,” said Sancho.

The ruling is the second win for Democrats in the past week. The same judge ruled to extend Florida’s voter registration deadline after Florida Democrats filed a lawsuit following Hurricane Matthew.

“In Florida we have elections won or lost by 1 percent, any little bit counts, and it’s just real important to make sure every vote is counted,” said Max Steele with the party.

More than 513,000 Floridians have already voted by mail. In 2012, around 23,000 mail in ballots were thrown out because of mismatching signatures.

The Department of State responded to us in a statement saying that they just received the ruling last night and were in the process of reviewing it.

The Supreme Court of Florida today said that a unanimous jury was required for the state to impose death, throwing out a newly enacted law that allowed ten jurors to impose the ultimate penalty, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the court left unanswered what happens to the nearly 400 people already on death row.

12 Jurors found Timothy Hurst guilty of the 1998 stabbing of a co worker at a Pensacola Popeyes. But only seven of them voted for death, which a judge imposed. This January, the US Supreme Court used the Hurst case to throw out that sentencing scheme,  in Florida, saying a jury not the judge had the final say.

House will come to order”

Then lawmakers enacted a 10-2 requirement for a death sentence this spring.  Now the Florida Supreme Court has said the Hurst decision demands a unanimous jury.

Nancy Daniels is Hurst’s Public Defender.

“So, they threw out the new Florida statute that had allowed the death penalty by a ten to two margin. And said going forward, we’re going to have to have unanimous verdicts in Florida” says a happy Daniels.

Nancy Daniels says Hurst will get a new sentencing hearing

Ah, it’s about time” Mark Schlakman told us. He’s been working for almost a decade to require a unanimous jury when death is on the table. “Why is unanimity important your mind?” we asked.

“It goes right to the core of our system of our jurisprudence” says the Human Rights Lawyer.

The court was asked to declare the entire death penalty unconstitutional. It refused. But it left unanswered what happens with the other 384 people who woke up on death row Friday morning.

During the legislative session, prosecutors had objected to requiring unanimous jury verdicts, saying no two people should be allowed to impose their will on the majority. The Supreme Court disagrees.

Lawmakers meet agin two weeks after next months election and could take action to confirm or overturn the court decision.

Is Florida voting information in the hands of Russian hackers? As Matt Galka tells us, the feds think it might be, but a state agency says all is well.

Cyber security and hacking have become prominent in the election cycle.  Federal investigators believe Russian hackers are behind the attacks. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is skeptical.

“You ever notice anything that goes wrong they blame Russia! Russia did it! They have no idea, we’re being hacked because we have people that don’t know what they’re doing,” said Trump at a Wednesday Ocala rally.

Now the FBI thinks Russian hackers have hit a vendor for Florida’s election system – possibly putting voter data at risk.

Supervisors from around the state were on a conference call last week with the feds regarding cyber security. Leon County Elections supervisor Ion Sancho was on the call.

“To my knowledge I have no information to confirmed that Florida has been penetrated or even scanned,” he said.

Sancho maintains elections in Florida are secure and better than ever – but even casting a little doubt in a voters head can hurt the process.

“I think one of the concerns is to make people fearful. For example, you may not vote by mail, but by attacking the state’s website they could alter for example, your party affiliation, or cause a mail ballot to get mailed to you. You’d say “I didn’t do this! What’s wrong! Something’s going on!” and potentially become apprehensive about the process,” he said.

The Department of State says everything is fine. In a statement, a spokeswoman said they have no indication of a Florida issue and they do not use a vendor for voter registration services.

Other states are thought to be victims of hacks including Arizona and Illinois where thousands of voters’ personal information may have been compromised.