A federal judge Friday required 32 counties to provide Spanish-language ballots and other assistance to Spanish-speaking voters in Florida’s March 2020 presidential primary election.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction that follows a similar ruling in September.
In the earlier ruling, Walker required the 32 counties to provide Spanish-language sample ballots but did not require Spanish-language ballots and other assistance, saying there wasn’t enough time before the November 2018 elections. The ruling Friday goes further in requiring Spanish-language ballots.
The case has focused on Puerto Rican voters and part of the federal Voting Rights Act aimed at people who were educated in schools where the predominant language was not English. It seeks to ensure they are not denied the right to vote in Florida.
Tampa, Florida has elected its first openly gay female mayor, ex-police chief Jane Castor, who won a runoff election in a landslide.
Within thirty minutes of the polls closing, the outcome was clear. Castor defeated wealthy businessman David Straz garnering a huge 73% of the vote.
“It shows a change in the times, but really all along, the majority of people just want someone who can do the job,” Castor said of her historic win. “They want a leader who’s gonna improve their lives and focus on the issues that matter to them. And that’s what I intend to do.”
“We don’t tear people down with negativity, so thank you all for believing in that message,” added the 59-year-old former police chief.
The reference to negativity was a clear nod to her opponent who reportedly spent $5 million, much of that his own money, in the race.
In the week’s leading up to the runoff vote, Straz declined any debates or forums saying voters had grown tired of them.
“That means Straz spent nearly $345 for every vote he received,” The Tampa Bay Times reports. “Castor, who won all but 7 of the city’s 103 precincts, spent about $44 per vote.”
Castor nearly won the general election outright, but fell 2 points short with 48% of the vote. That number was triple Straz’s 15.5% he earned to come in second.
Acknowledging her long-time partner, Ana Cruz, Castor gushed, “She was everything. I’ve never been involved in campaign before, that’s her wheelhouse. She knows how to run a positive campaign.”
In conceding the race, Straz called for the city to rally around the new mayor.
“This is all about the future of Tampa,” Straz told the media. “The voters have spoken. They elected Jane Castor. And we need to get behind our mayor and help move the city forward.”
According to her campaign website, Castor served 31 years at the Tampa Police Department, first as a beat cop and then six years as police chief.
LGBTQ advocacy groups celebrated the news.
“Jane Castor’s victory is a clear sign that LGBTQ Americans are being welcomed as leaders in every part of society,” said Erin Uritus, CEO of Out & Equal. “Tampa is the second major American city to elect an openly lesbian mayor so far this month, coming just weeks after Lori Lightfoot won in Chicago.”
“For decades we have fought to make sure that LGBTQ Americans like Castor can have a seat at the table,” she added. “Elections like this show us that all of us belong at the table.”
VICTORY: Jane Castor makes history as Tampa’s first openly LGBTQ mayor. 🏳️🌈@HRC was proud to endorse @JaneforTampa and look forward to working closely with her to ensure the city continues to move forward as an inclusive and welcoming place for everyone. https://t.co/7unu3pb5VHpic.twitter.com/FqILD4OYam
.@eqfl_actionPAC spotlight candidate @JaneforTampa has made history tonight as Tampa’s first openly #LGBTQ mayor! We look forward to working with Mayor-elect Castor as she continues the work to keep Tampa a beacon of diversity in the South! #sayfiepic.twitter.com/f0fUKo4oXw
In the last six elections, the presidential candidate who won Florida went on to occupy the Oval Office.
So it should be disconcerting to Donald Trump that a new Bendixen & Amandi International poll of registered Florida voters showed a majority – 53% – do not think Trump should be re-elected to a second term. Forty percent indicated they would be in favor of the Donald serving for four more years.
Additionally, Trump’s support among Republicans in the Sunshine state, while high at 73%, is lower than his national average of 82% according to the latest Quinnipiac polling.
Florida lawmakers will consider two bills this session with major implications for LGBTQs
As this year’s session of the Florida state legislature gets underway today, state lawmakers will consider two bills that could have serious impact on the LGBTQ community in the Sunshine state.
The Florida Competitive Workforce Act (CWA) would amend the 1992 Florida Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes from discrimination.
The CWA has been introduced for ten years with an ever-increasing number of sponsors.
This year, the legislation has almost 60 sponsors – including 10 Republicans. In fact, the primary sponsor for the bill in the state House is Republican Jackie Toledo of Orlando.
A coalition of 450 businesses in the state including Disney, Darden and AT&T, support the passage of CWA.
“If the Florida Legislature is looking to recruit businesses like Amazon — at no cost to the taxpayer — all they have to do is pass a law that says LGBTQ people will be treated fairly and equally in our state in employment, housing and public accommodations,” Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) told the Orlando Sentinel. “Other states already have this. It’s not a social experiment.”
Currently, 20 states have comprehensive LGBTQ civil rights protections.
Joe Saunders, senior political director for Equality Florida, says “It’s our belief that if the Florida Competitive Workforce Act were sent to the floor today, it would pass both chambers.”
However, Rep. Michael Grant (R-Port Charlotte) has sponsored another bill – House Bill 3 – which would preempt local governments from imposing new regulations on businesses and sunset all local ordinances that currently impose such regulations, including those that ban discrimination.
In other words, HB 3 would wipe out all local ordinances that protect LGBTQs from discrimination. In the absence of a statewide law, local ordinances currently protect gays in only 60% of the state.
Grant insists his legislation comes as a result of a recently enacted Key West ordinance which bans the sale of sunscreens that contain ingredients known to harm coral reefs.
It’s the coral reefs he’s protecting. Riiiiiiight.
“What is absolutely clear to us is that, if this bill passes, it will be devastating to the protections provided by local government to the LGBTQ community,” says Saunders.
In this context, its clear why the CWA is so important. It would finally create statewide protections for LGBTQs.
In past years, the CWA hasn’t even made it out of committee. The Sentinel notes that most years, it wasn’t even assigned to a committee which demonstrates how key power players in the state legislature opposed the bill.
It will come as no surprise that the anti-LGBT Florida Family Policy Council strenuously opposes passage of the CWA.
President and general counsel for FFPC, John Stemberger, claims the CWA will create “a new lawsuit which can be used as a weapon by disgruntled employees to sue employers, claiming they were fired because of the very fluid and subjective notions of gender identity or sexual orientation.”
He also says the statewide protections would allow for lawsuits that “punish creative professionals who decline to design or create a custom product which communicates a message which they disagree with or which conflicts with their religious convictions.”
That’s not exactly true, though.
The CWA already contains language that makes exceptions for “constitutionally protected free exercise of religion.”
If you want an example of how a positive or negative civil rights environment attracts or repels business, take a look at North Carolina.
When the Tar Heel state passed its 2016 law that allowed for LGBTQ discrimination, the NCAA and the NBA All-Star Game canceled on the state, as did corporations looking to bring new businesses to the area.
Experts estimate the economic impact to North Carolina was $3.76 billion according to the Associate Press.
Former Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel (image via FL Dept of State)
Florida’s newly-appointed Secretary of State, Michael Ertel, has resigned on his 16th day in office after photos surfaced of him posing as a Hurricane Katrina victim in blackface, lipstick and fake breasts at a Halloween party some years ago.
“I am submitting my resignation as Florida secretary of state effective immediately,” he wrote in an email. “It has been an honor to serve you and the voters of Florida.”
The Governor’s Office issue a statement: “The governor accepted Secretary Ertel’s resignation.”
“It’s unfortunate. He’s done a lot of good work,” DeSantis said at an event later in the day.
DeSantis explained he accepted the resignation because “I don’t want to get mired in side controversies.”
Garbage people like Michael Ertel will dress in full blackface and mock hurricane survivors WHILE SERVING AS ELECTED OFFICIALS, then turn right around and condemn @RashidaTlaib for using a swear. pic.twitter.com/Ng7ndkvS5J
The photo is apparently from a 2005 Halloween party, eight months into Ertel’s tenure as Seminole County supervisor of elections and just two months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans.
The Tallahassee Democrat calls the photos “the sole blemish on a seemingly spotless public career, highlighted by a record of increasing voter registration and making the elections office more accessible to the public.”
#Florida's top elections official, the newly appointed Secretary of State Mike Ertel, just resigned after unforgivably awful blackface photos of him emerged and they're much worse than that. He mocked Hurricane Katrina victims.#ThursdayThoughts#FlaPolhttps://t.co/qpdbbQ6fTU— Grant Stern (@grantstern) January 24, 2019
Do not wear blackface. It is racist and inappropriate. Someone will take your photo and you will lose your job, which you will deserve. (Unless you’re a teenage boy in Catholic school, then, whatevs). https://t.co/aDBn8Rp9k3— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) January 24, 2019
As new governors take office across the nation, many begin their tenures by issuing executive orders banning discrimination in terms of state government.
Both Michigan and Wisconsin saw their respective new governors, both Democrats, issue anti-discrimination orders quickly after being sworn in.
Those orders prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, age, race, color, national origin, religion disability, marital status, sexual orientation and gender identity in regard to state employment and state contracting.
But in Florida, it’s a very different situation.
Newly-seated Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis did sign a non-discrimination executive order this week, but the omission of LGBT protections in his directive is glaring.
Equality Florida’s senior political director, Joe Saunders, was quick to call out DeSantis for excluding LGBT Floridian’s in his executive order.
“Equality Florida is deeply disappointed to see that LGBTQ employees and contractors have been left out of the governor’s executive order,” Saunders said.
The lack of LGBT-inclusive protections is a sad continuation of Florida’s previous governor, Republican Rick Scott, who refused to issue an anti-LGBT discrimination executive order, even following the devastating mass-shooting at Pulse Nightclub on June 12, 2016, that left 49 LGBTQ people dead.
“As governors across the country establish these critical protections for LGBTQ families, this order draws a stark contrast,” said Saunders.
“We look forward to a dialogue with Gov. DeSantis about why LGBTQ employees have been omitted from this critical policy and how he plans to make sure that all Floridians, regardless of who they are or who they love, can be protected from discrimination,” he added.
On December 1, just 21 days ago, Randall Coffman moved into his new apartment in Clay County, located just outside of Jacksonville, Florida.
The apartment has its own entrance but is attached to the home of his landlord, Jackie Cooper.
A couple of weeks after moving in, Cooper saw Coffman and told him she didn’t want him inviting girls over late into the night.
Coffman informed his landlord that wouldn’t be a problem since he’s gay.
“I’ve been gay since I was born,” said Coffman according to First Coast News. “After that, the harassment for being gay started.”
The next day, Cooper approached her new tenant and told him he had to leave – because he’s gay.
Sensing trouble, Coffman recorded the conversation. Watch the report from First Coast News below.
“Listen to me now, you have to leave this place,” says Cooper in the video. “You didn’t tell me you’re gay until yesterday.”
“Why do I have to tell you I’m gay?,” asked Coffman. “I don’t have to tell you.”
Cooper responded, “You think I want homosexuals coming in and out of my place like that?”
Cooper denies the issue is Coffman being gay, even though she’s caught on video saying exactly that. She says Coffman failed to provide a copy of his driver’s license.
Even though Cooper’s position is discriminatory, the law is currently on her side.
Jacksonville’s 2017 Human Rights Ordinance protects LGBTQ tenants from housing discrimination, but Cooper’s Clay County home is located outside of the city limits.
Neither Cooper nor Coffman signed a lease making his arrangement a verbal month-to-month agreement. In such cases, a landlord can kick a tenant out with 15 days notice.
According to Coffman, Cooper gave him until the 27th to vacate the apartment, which is just shy of the 15-day rule.
But Coffman, currently looking for a new place to live, says he won’t put up a fight. He tells First Coast News he’s uncomfortable about returning to the property.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (L) and Gov. Rick Scott (R)
A federal judge has ordered an injunction to allow voters whose signatures don’t appear to match on their ballots in the hotly-contested Florida race for US Senate to correct their ballots.
U.S. Chief Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction this morning in a lawsuit filed by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson over ballots thrown out because of mismatched signatures — declaring a state law unconstitutional and offering a middle path to give voters a few days to correct their ballots.
“The precise issue in this case is whether Florida’s law that allows county election officials to reject vote-by-mail and provisional ballots for mismatched signatures — with no standards, an illusory process to cure, and no process to challenge the rejection — passes constitutional muster,” Walker said. “The answer is simple. It does not.”
The ruling is a victory for Nelson as he tries to narrow the almost 13,000 vote margin between him and Gov. Rick Scott in a razor-thin Senate race that is currently the subject of multiple lawsuits and is undergoing a machine recount, which will likely progress to a hand recount.
After Walker’s order was filed, the National Republican Senatorial Committee filed a notice of appeal to the 11th Circuit.
Election officials have identified 3,688 vote-by-mail ballots and 93 provisional ballots in 45 counties that were not tabulated because of signature mismatches.
Based on 2016 results, the total could be as high as 5,000.
Even though no winner has been called for the still-this-close Senate race in Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott flew to Washington D.C. to take part in ‘freshman orientation’ events for the Senate.
Check out the photo below as Scott poses for photos next to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
A lawyer for Scott told U.S. District Judge Mark Walker today that the governor plans to recuse himself from certifying the election results, just like he did in 2014, when he was ran for re-election.
Counties face a 3 p.m. Thursday deadline to report results from the machine recounts in the U.S. Senate, governor and agriculture commissioner races. The unofficial results from the . Senate and agriculture races were within 0.25 percent, the threshold to trigger a manual recount.
The results from the manual recounts are due by noon Sunday, and the state canvassing board is scheduled to certify the results of the election on Tuesday.
After receiving unofficial election results from all 67 counties, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner on Saturday officially ordered machine recounts in three statewide elections – U.S. Senate, Governor and Agriculture Commissioner.
Now, county election officials will feed ballots into machines to recount the results in those races. The second round of results is due to the state by 3 p.m. Thursday.
If the results show a margin of 0.25 percent or less, which appears to be the case in the most heated race between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott for Senate, a hand recount is ordered. Results from a hand recount would be due Sunday, Nov. 18 at noon.
The votes cast in the U.S. Senate race were within 0.15 percentage points, a margin of less than 13,000 votes out of more than 8 million cast.
Florida update:
Bill Nelson 4,085,545 Rick Scott 4,098,107
Andrew Gillum 4,042,195 Ron DeSantis 4,075,879
Nikki Fried 4,030,337 Matt Caldwell 4,025,011
Preliminary results are in. All three races going to recount.
There is zero evidence of vote fraud in Florida. There is zero evidence of vote fraud in Florida. There is zero evidence of vote fraud in Florida. There is zero evidence of vote fraud in Florida. There is zero evidence of vote fraud in Florida.
I’ve noticed some confusion about how elections work. People vote on (and now often before) Election Day. And those votes are counted. All of them. Sometimes it takes a while. Then, and only then, you know who won.
