Show a Little Faith, America

Regular commentator to this blog Doug shared a story about voting this midterms that I consider an apt anecdote in these days:

I just got off of the phone with a nice employee of the Madera County Elections office.

I called to see what I should do with the second ballot they mailed me by mistake, presumably because I had re-registered to vote when I renewed my state ID online.

The guy I called said to just throw it away because when I cast the ballots they sent me last month, it automatically invalidated the second one issued by mistake, meaning that nobody could use the extra ballot to cast a fraudulent vote.

He thanked me for taking it seriously enough to call and ask about it.

Apparently, the folks who run our elections know what they're doing.

All that doomsaying and fearmongering from the Republicans and the Far Right, about how our elections are "rigged" or "compromised" or "stolen." They're lying: the voting system - for all the glitches that can pop up - as a whole works, because there's professionals doing their jobs as mandated by laws and customs. There's checks and balances in the counting process at the county level - I know, I was a precinct officer in 2002 - and for all the things that can go crooked, there's guidelines in place to catch those problems and fix them to ensure a fair vote.

trump can't admit he loses, so he claims mass voter fraud he can't ever prove in courts. That's because there is no mass voter fraud: Every case of fraud is from individuals making mistakes on their own, or specific individuals trying to cheat in meager - hilariously few fake IDs compared to the tens of thousands genuinely voting - numbers that won't affect a thing.

The Republicans - the Far Right conservatives making up the core of their party - don't like the idea of non-elites voting at all: They will do what they can to stop the rest of us from voting, but they can't because for all their tricks and denials - especially at the SCOTUS level - the Constitutional amendments upholding the rights to vote are still in effect.

Trust the vote, America. This is why it's important to show up for early voting, to get your mail-in ballots posted, to show up on Election Day November 3rd at your local precinct to get your votes counted. The majority of Americans want change, they want trump and his ilk held accountable for their crimes, and voting in Democrats across the board all 50 states is the best way to do so.

Thank you Doug for your efforts. 

Thanks to everyone else voting Democratic everywhere. 

Let's do this.

Deeper Into the Mud Pit, Republicans

As the midterms enter the final rounds - with November now two weeks away - you get to see some ugly behaviors out of political campaigns as desperation kicks in. Mudslinging, alas, has been with the American electoral process since the earliest days of the Republic. The horrifying thing is how - thanks to the immediacy of modern media - overwhelming and vicious it can get.

If you think there can never be a floor, a low bar that our parties and candidates would never sink below, forget it. There will always a deeper layer of vulgarity certain candidates will always dive into, such as the Republican candidate for governor over in Ohio (via David A. Graham at the Atlantic (paywalled)):

If you don’t live in Ohio, you’ve probably been blissfully free from thinking about Vivek Ramaswamy since the 2024 Republican presidential primary, which he left after arousing the visceral dislike of pretty much all of his rivals, as well as many voters.

Ramaswamy, who’s now running for Ohio governor, is back in the national spotlight this week, once again in extremely unflattering fashion, because of a campaign ad targeting the Democratic candidate Amy Acton. Acton, a first-time candidate, has leaned heavily on her inspiring biography: She has spoken about experiencing homelessness as well as being raped by her stepfather as a child; she later waited tables and delivered newspapers to put herself through medical school, eventually becoming the director of the Ohio Department of Health.

Most recent polls have shown Acton with a small advantage over Ramaswamy, which may be why his campaign resorted to the appalling commercial. The spot features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, accusing her of being an inveterate liar. “She’s lied her entire life,” Arthur says. “My daughter needs help, and she can’t help you if she needs help herself.”

It is a standard mudslinging tactic to find someone within the opponent's personal orbit - often a family member carrying a grudge - to make personal attacks on how "unreliable" the opponent is, or that they're habitual liars or crooks. The idea is to paint the opponent is as negative a light as possible to discourage even their party faithful in supporting them.

Whether or not it works, such attacks draw a lot of public ire towards the candidate - or the PAC supporting that candidate - for going that negative in the first place. Especially when all the evidence supports the opposing candidate.

The ad immediately drew both outrage and debunkings. “It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at 12 years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point,” Acton’s brother said in a statement. National Review, the conservative magazine, pointed out that court documents provide extensive backup for Acton’s claims, as does contemporary press coverage. She was removed from her mother’s custody at the time; her mother’s husband, Cledith Arthur, whom she accused, left the state after being indicted for sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty and died in 2004.

When even the National Review sides with the Democratic candidate on the fact-checking, the Republican candidate ought to take a step back and apologize. Of course, the Far Right wingnuts never will apologize even when they're clearly losing the fight.

If anyone looks bad in this story, it's the mother: she sided with her second husband when the accusations led to criminal charges, and fled with the guy when he jumped bail.

If anyone looks worse in this story, it's the entire Republican Party. Once proud to campaign on "Family Values" and going after criminals threatening our women and children, they are now happily siding with sexual predators of young girls and following the banner of donald trump carrying his own baggage of sexual assaults and ties to teen sex traffickers. Graham damns the regime for their willingness to aide and abide the worst behaviors among their own party:

For a campaign to cast doubt on a rival’s account of childhood sexual abuse is shocking; to do so despite such evidence is despicable. For years, influential MAGA figures insisted that a conspiracy of pedophiles was running the government and other influential institutions. Now some of them treat pedophilia as no big deal. The Trump administration has tried to downplay the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sexual predator who was at one time a close friend of the president’s and maintained ties to other administration officials as well. Ramaswamy is opting to dismiss allegations of pedophilia and use them to smear an opponent. At an event earlier this year, he said that Acton has no vision “other than to complain about what someone else did to her.”

...The ad has generated widespread condemnation. Even some right-wing influencers who initially spread it, such as Jackie Chea, have had second thoughts: “I have no idea if Amy’s abuse allegations are true, but if they are, then her mother is the monster … I regret framing the post as if Amy was lying about her mother when I can’t be sure about that.” Another, Dan Bostic, wrote, “I’ve never in my life seen someone do something so stupid. It’s hard to even wrap my brain around how someone could possess such horrible political instinct...”

But the ad is another example of how Ramaswamy’s obnoxious personality has turned a race that should have been a safe GOP win into a toss-up. The candidate’s favorability rating is deeply negative. His fellow Republicans continue to dislike him. The outgoing governor, Mike DeWine, whose occasional pangs of conscience make him a profile in near-courage, clearly dreaded endorsing his fellow Republican. And although the national environment is friendly to Democratic candidates this year, no Democrat has won a governor’s race in Ohio since 2006; Donald Trump won the state three times. Acton is a first-time candidate most famous for her association with COVID public-health measures, neither of which is an obvious asset. If Ramaswamy loses, there will be no question about who was responsible.

If Ramaswamy does lose, it will be because he had no other way to win. As much as he and his campaign are saying he's campaigning on the issues, nobody really sees that. On tariffs, on unwanted wars, on the raging economic chaos happening under trump and a Republican-held Congress, he's not reaching the voters... if he's even trying to. All he is running on now is mudslinging Acton. 

And this is all Republicans really have anymore. On nearly every major issue concerning American voters, they're siding with Democrats over Republicans. There's nothing the GOP can offer a majority of voters to appease them other than undoing every ideological misstep they've committed under trump's rule, and they can't because their own wingnuts want to drag their party further into the Far Right dogma.

So all they can do is smear and mudsling the Democrats. Not so much to sway undecided voters to their Far Right cause - because the smearing destroys the attacker's reputation among voters more than the opponent getting smeared - but in order to disgust the average voter into not showing up at all. There's solid evidence mudslinging reduces voter interest and turnout, to where the only ones showing up are the extremist blocs - the single-issue angry voter focused on Culture War bullshit.

The only thing the majority of voters should do when the mudslinging happens IS to show up: Defy the wingnut expectations, and vote AGAINST the despicable and vile candidates like Ramaswamy to deny them any victory at all.

Toss the Far Right deeper into their own mud, America. Show up at the ballots. Vote FOR the Democrats they're so desperate to smear.

Early Voting 2026 in Florida

I actually early voted yesterday afternoon, but I've been kind of distracted last night - RAYS UP WE GONNA WIN THIS THING - so I got around to posing for the selfie this morning.

Goddamn, I need a haircut.
...and a prettier face.
...and healthier body odor.
...and...

I did my duty to God and Country and voted Democratic straight down the ticket - to hell with you Republicans, with your corruption and blasphemous worship of the Shitgibbon - as well as voting NO on Florida Amendment 3. 

Again: If that amendment passes, cities and counties are going to lose most of their revenues. You're not saving on taxes - and it's not going to benefit renters or new-time homeowners - you're just shifting the costs elsewhere. I wish people understood what taxes actually DO for them and their communities. 

So now, for me: I wait and I pray that enough Democrats show up to vote, that enough Independent voters show up to side with the Dems, and that enough Republicans are too angry at their own party to refuse to vote.

Elections matter. Showing up and voting matters. Get it done, Florida! (please)

The Law As a Weapon Of Fear

Update: Thank you again Batocchio for including this blog at Crooks & Liars' Mike's Blog Round-Up. I know the C&L regulars are already keen on getting their votes in, but just reminding everyone to get the word out, get the voters to the ballots, get that Blue Wave across all 50 states - there's hope in Florida and Texas and Iowa and Kansas and GOOD GOD Mississippi? LET'S DO THIS - so we can hold trump and his crooked lackeys accountable. And stay safe: the ICE thugs are already out there trying to intimidate us.

There are several ways of describing trump's administration focused assaults on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar this past week: a modern day partisan witch hunt; trump's unhinged desires for revenge against his "enemies" over the public humiliations of his own criminal acts; the Republican Party's overall need to demonize Democrats during the midterms, using a known figure in the media to do so; the raging Islamophobia due to Omar's Muslim faith, combined with the open racism aimed at the color of her Somali skin.

No matter how blatant this recent attack is, Edith Olmstead at New Republic is right to point out how questionable it all is:

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin revealed Friday that the Trump administration is hoping to bring a criminal conspiracy case against Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar.

Appearing on Real America’s Voice, Mullin discussed his agency’s plan to go after the Democratic lawmaker after her home in Washington was raided Monday, just three weeks before November’s midterm elections. The federal government is reportedly investigating how Omar got her citizenship after she arrived in the United States from Somalia as a child...

The probe ostensibly centers on whether Omar’s father put her age as 17 rather than 18 on her citizenship application to allow her to qualify immediately for citizenship alongside his own application. In order to strip her American citizenship, the Department of Justice has to sue in federal court and prove that the person materially lied to get their status. It’s still unclear what, if any, evidence DHS has found to support this crusade against one of the president’s most outspoken critics.

It should be noted trump tried to exile Omar during his first term back in 2019; officials back then did some digging and found nothing to justify trump's allegations against her. Of course, this is the darker and more vicious second term under trump: thanks to SCOTUS all rules that would constrain this abuse of power are out the window.

The timing of trump's attack on Omar is obvious: weeks before the midterms elections and during any early voting where Omar is running for re-election to Congress. It's something that the Justice Department normally didn't do during election cycles: they tended to hold off on any public investigations into alleged criminal acts in order to avoid the appearance of partisan interference. 

trump clearly wants to interfere, and doesn't care about what's improper. trump wants his vengeance,  and he wants his scalps.

Add to this trump's overall terror campaign towards immigrants, focusing especially on Somali - and other dark-skinned - residents who came here legally and did everything by the book to become Americans. Ilhan Omar is the most public example of such immigrants achieving success in this country, success that racists like trump and his lackeys can't abide. It doesn't help that she's also a woman, triggering their misogyny on top of the racism.

Anything they can do to dehumanize her and her ethnicity, anything they can do to remove her citizenship and her rights under the law. This is all part of the Far Right war on The Other, all part of their desire to undo the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause to make America safe for mediocre White Men again. All part of the haters' agenda to turn the law against everyone else and make most of the nation afraid of them: not afraid of immigrants or Blacks or women, but afraid of the political elites willing to unleash sanctioned violence against entire communities.

The odds are Omar hasn't broken any laws and should not face any punishment... but trump and his lackeys are damn well going to try. Not just on her but inflicting more punishment on others to keep that fear inflamed. Keeping us afraid is the only way to hide their fear of us.

No fear. Get the votes out this midterms. Vote for Ilhan Omar and every other Democratic candidate for office. Make trump and the Far Right afraid of everything they deserve to lose.

I Didn't Even See Her Enter the Building Let Alone Leave

This happened so fast I didn't even have time to blog about it properly (via NPR's Washington DC desk)

Katie Zacharia is "transitioning out" of her role as press secretary, according to a White House official not authorized to speak on the record, marking a stunning turn of events for the spokeswoman who officially started Monday and is out by Friday.

Zacharia's first briefing was Tuesday morning where she faced scrutiny both over her performance – during which she delivered a lengthy and halting opening statement read from notes and called on only three reporters – and her legal credentials.

President Trump on Friday cast doubt on the future of Zacharia, saying he had a discussion with her just before leaving for a campaign rally in Georgia.

The 41-year-old graduate of Pepperdine Caruso School of Law and self-described attorney had stepped in as Trump's chief spokesperson at a moment when his popularity has fallen to record lows and Republicans are scrambling to limit potential losses in the midterm elections.

Much of the scrutiny of Zacharia focused on her credentials as an attorney. While standing with Trump, she was asked by reporters where she passed the bar exam.

"When I moved to China," Zacharia answered, an apparent reference to what she has described on her LinkedIn page as a period of time from 2011 through 2013 spent working for a prominent Beijing-based law firm called Zhon Lun...

Except that there's no record of Zacharia getting certified in China, and currently no record of her passing a bar exam stateside. She has a law degree, but that's different from the bar which allows you to practice law in courts and other legal matters. (It's like me having a degree in journalism, but it doesn't automatically make me a reporter.)

As much as her credentials were under question, what hurt Zacharia as trump's new bald-faced gaslighting liar press secretary was her actual performance her first official day on the job (via Tom Jones with Poynter): 

New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia held her first press briefing on Tuesday.

And how did it go? Put it this way: It could have gone better. Way better. In fact, it couldn’t have gone much worse.

Here’s how you know it’s bad: Insiders are already asking if her days are numbered.

A visibly nervous Zacharia met the media for a mere 14 minutes, looking down for most of it while reading prepared notes. She then called on just three reporters, all from conservative outlets: Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail.

Reactions to the slow-motion train wreck were swift and overwhelmingly negative.

The New York Times’ Shawn McCreesh called Zacharia’s debut “a bumpy one.”

CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins called it a “bizarre” press briefing, telling colleague Wolf Blitzer on the air, “And so I’m not really sure, Wolf, that I’ve ever been to a press briefing where there were only three questions in the briefing. It was quite unusual, especially for the first press briefing, which was widely touted by the White House and announced by the president...”

It was bad enough that some are wondering if Zacharia will last even as long as Anthony Scaramucci, who made it only 10 days as White House communications director during Trump’s first term. One anonymous official told MS NOW’s Jake Traylor, “Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get much better, fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record...”

Ahhh, Anthony Scaramucci. The original tin-plated standard for political career brevity. Jones had him at 10 days but most others are generous about his brief stay as trump's media whipping boy, setting a Scaramucci as a measurement of 11 days in office. Wiki editors are unforgiving in their promptness: they've already added Zacharia as a measurement of 5 days (or .45 a Scaramucci).

Zacharia's week-long tenure brought up serious questions from Jones about why someone as inexperienced as her with public relations was tapped for trump's Mouth of Sauron Putin:

Veteran media journalist Jeremy Barr of The Guardian made the correct point on social media Tuesday: “There were plenty of actual Fox News employees available who could have done this job (rather than an unpaid guest), someone like Emily Compagno for example…”

How true. It seems as if Trump had plenty of people to choose from instead of Zacharia for such an important role.

Did Trump really hire her simply because he liked her appearances on various news networks, particularly Fox News? How did she get the job? Was she vetted at all?

The Washington Post’s Michael Birnbaum reported Trump made the hire without even talking it over with his chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

Birnbaum wrote, “Senior White House staff, including Wiles, were informed of the decision to hire Zacharia the night before Trump announced it on Friday, the people said. Zacharia had little time to prepare for the briefing, which can be a challenging joust with the press in which a press secretary needs to advocate on behalf of the administration, stick to the facts — sometimes — and improvise quickly when tricky topics arise.”

She looked overwhelmed and underprepared, leading some to wonder why she was rushed to the podium so quickly after being hired. One Trump adviser told CNN, “She should have been doing murder boards for two weeks before going up there.”

It should be noted Zacharia's predecessor Karoline Leavitt at least had experience in the communications rooms of various political offices, not only interning during trump's first term but also for Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik. Everyone else beforehand - even good old Sean "Spicy" Spicer had years as a communications director for the GOP - were practiced and field-tested to go before hostile press rooms. It's not like trump - and it doesn't seem like his handlers had a say in this one - could would or should go after incompetency as a quality for such a high-profile position. And yet he did, because trump is more obsessed with appearances - young, white, blonde - than anything else anymore.

Zacharia's sudden departure leaves trump's comms unit in serious turmoil, desperate to find a more credible spokesperson who isn't going to drag trump or the Republicans any further into humiliation that trump and the Republicans are already doing to themselves this midterms.

If Zacharia has any good thing happening for her this week, it's that Saturday Night Live will never get around to mocking her the way they did Spicy. (slow clap) Good for you, Katie. Good for you.

The Stressful October

Apologies for the lack of blogging.

Midterms are stressing me out.

Early voting in Florida is coming up.

Get the vote out.

Kick the Republican crooks out of office, please and thank you.

Everything At Stake: 2026 Midterms

If it feels like this election cycle is the most important of our lifetimes AGAIN for the tenth or twelfth time, it's because since 2004 we've been dealing with high stakes for our nation - and for the state of Florida where I live - ever since the Bush the Lesser administration created so many mistakes - the flaws and failures of the War On Terror above all - and mishandled so many disasters - the various corporate scandals from Enron to the mortgage crisis, as well as Hurricane Katrina - that we've been trying to compensate ever since.

It doesn't help that the cyclical nature of the elections themselves - swinging towards liberals and Democrats one term, swinging towards conservative Republicans after a term or two - doesn't allow for any stability in policies, with the partisan nature of the Republicans' destructive agendas causing more chaos and harm than any good. This particular congressional term of 2025-2026 - the mass deportations and civil rights abuses, the refusal to rein in trump's corruption and warmongering - has been partisanship destruction on steroids through inaction and distraction, with far too many aspects of federal - and state - effectiveness falling apart.

If there's anything positive about the 2026 midterm cycle, it's that many signs are pointing to a Democratic "Blue Wave" similar to what happened in 2018... except this time voter anger towards trump and Republicans are higher and more visceral. There are signs that the Democrats can claim enough seats in the Senate this cycle - with Alaska, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, and Kansas in play - to clinch control of both parts of Congress.

Granted, the polls are still within margin of error and could still provide narrow wins for Republicans to keep the Senate, but most of the polling - not just nationwide but at the district levels - are pointing to Dems claiming the House of Representatives... and that's AFTER all the massive gerrymandering the Republicans inflicted this year after the Supreme Court ruled they could eliminate minority-majority (also Democratic) districts.

Hoping is one thing that likely voters will show: Action is what matters, and actual voter turnout is necessary among the Democratic base - and all others among the No Party Affiliates and disgruntled Republicans - to show up by November 3rd to get their ballots in and make them count.

For Florida, that means showing up to vote in every congressional district for any Democratic candidate on that ballot. That means showing up to vote for the Democratic Senate candidate statewide. That means showing up to vote out the overlong Republican dominance at the state legislative levels as well as putting Democrats back into the governor's office along with the other executive offices up for vote.

The state attorney general election is vital this year for Democrats to win because of the current scandals surrounding the DeSantis regime, especially the Hope Florida theft of $10 million earmarked for sick kids. If the Republicans win the state AG office, that Republican - James Uthmeier, who has connections to that scandal! - will squash any further investigation or criminal charges aimed at those who stole money from sick kids, and perpetuate all future GOP scandals as the state Republicans know they will get away with all of it. Holding these crooks accountable is a key reason to show up and vote this midterms for Democrats. This is why voting for Jose Javier Rodriguez could arguably be the most important choice on your state ballot.

For the governor's office itself, the Democratic candidate is David Jolly a one-time Republican who quit that party of his own volition during the first trump regime, and has taken the role of the centrist candidate trying to appeal to both Dems and NPA/angry Republican voters. There is a risk though, as previous election attempts of centrist candidates (sigh, Crist) did not boost general election Dem turnout. This year is different due to the overall anger by the electorate, one hopes. It matters to elect Jolly because the Republican on the ballot Byron Donalds is an openly MAGA wingnut who will impose trumpian chaos at the state level.

For the U.S. Senate race, the Democratic primary voters pulled off an upset going with Angie Nixon, an openly avowed progressive who impressed the base with effective ground campaigning and an aggressive anti-trump message. The polling has Nixon neck-and-neck to incumbent Ashley Moody, who has close ties to the DeSantis crime family and involvement in the Hope Florida scandal... and thus utterly deserves to get kicked out by Florida voters angry by all the GOP corruption. Voting FOR Nixon - relax, this is the GOOD Nixon - would also contribute to the Democrats' chances of gaining control of the Senate.

There's also Democrat Annette Taddeo running for the Chief Financial Officer position, and Joey Mendoza Atkins for Commissioner of Agriculture. Voting for the Democratic candidates for Congress, state House, and state Senate depending on your district matters a lot as well, please and thank you.

Florida also has a judicial retention vote, and up for consideration this year is Carlos Muniz, appointed to the seat in 2019 by DeSantis, which should be a huge mark against Muniz for starters. The Orlando Sentinel describes Muniz as one of the most partisan justices on the state bench, who ruled on enforcing a strict abortion ban and supported blatant gerrymandered maps. Voting NO on Muniz will hold him accountable for those decisions. One other reason to vote for Jolly as governor by the by is to end the ongoing stacking of state judgeships by all the Republican governors we've had for 20-plus years: our court system is filled with Far Right partisans who'll rule in favor of their elites instead of serving the needs of the public.

Last thing on the Florida ballots will be three amendments: Amendment One is to increase the amount of money that may be retained in the budget stabilization fund (aka the Rainy Day emergency bank), and limits on how the money gets transferred; Amendment Two is to exempt farm equipment or tools from property taxes if the property is listed for agricultural needs; and Amendment Three is an expanded homestead exemption rate a nuclear bomb wiping out millions from any county and city government's revenues raised from property taxes.

I've already made my position on Amendment Three clear: raising the exemption rates to such extremes would ruin many services provided at the city and county levels, such as road maintenance, clean water supply and sewage handling, public parks, libraries, fire rescue, law enforcement, and more. Public hospitals and health services could lose $323 million over three years. Counties could lose up to $29.7 BILLION over five years (almost 65 percent of their revenues) and cities losing up to $12 BILLION (around 26 percent of their revenues) in that same span. 

For anyone thinking they're going to save between $600 to $1200 on their annual taxes with this amendment, consider the costs of everything else in your life going up either by counties/cities enacting more fees (if the state will even let them!) or the costs of suddenly dealing with dirty water, higher utility bills, 2000 potholes between your house and work, and your kids suddenly having no safe parks or open museums to entertain them. That $1200 you're saving from one column in your balance sheet is going to get eaten up by the other costs. It's not worth the loss of public services, and I am not saying this as an employee of a city public library I'm saying this as a homeowner who is okay with paying my taxes as a civic duty. For the love of GOD, vote NO on Three.

As for Amendment One, there's no evidence at the moment that the budget stabilization fund needs more money - it's at its highest amount (9.3 percent) in years, having recovered from the fiscal horrors of 2008 - and this move feels like a power grab by the Republicans in the state legislature. I'm thinking of voting NO on One. 

Amendment Two does address the costs of managing farms here in the state, removing some of the fiscal burdens allowing our local agribusinesses to afford equipment and other supplies. Florida needs to maintain local agriculture at least to ensure food security at this level, so this would help our communities overall. It may cut into the property taxes for our counties, but not at the extremes that Amendment Three does. I would vote YES on Two.

That all said: VOTING MATTERS, FLORIDA. Especially during a midterms that trump and his lackeys are threatening to take away our votes by hook or crook. If you're worried about your county precinct being at risk from illegal federal raids, plan ahead and do Early Voting which happens October 19th through November 1st. Check your county's Elections website to find out locations - they tend to be in centralized locations that ICE / DHS / FBI aren't keen to hit since white voters will be there - and plan to go early mornings or late afternoons depending on your work schedules.

Vote the Republican crooks out, Florida. Vote FOR David Jolly, Jose Javier Rodriguez, Angie Nixon, and every Democrat on the ballots. Vote NO on Three above all. 

PLEASE VOTE.