Before the September and October 2024 storms, Fort Myers City Council candidate and environmental activist Cindy Bunyai spoke out about the health threats posed by the city’s aging water infrastructure and fecal-contaminated waterways. It has been listed as one of the most important issues. The Manuel Branch, in the creek behind the high school, was the site of the city’s largest sewage leak four years ago. Banyai said students who like to throw their shoes into streams and “fiddle around” are at risk of being exposed to harmful bacteria because the problem has not been properly remediated.
After the one-two punch of Helen and Milton, Floridians lost interest in politics. The first hurricane left a trail of severe destruction in the Big Bend region that connects Florida’s Panhandle and Peninsula. To the south, Fort Myers suffered minor wind damage and storm surge flooding of the downtown business district and nearby homes.
By the time Milton began his expedition to Florida, short on funds and with an unreliable vehicle, Bunyai and his family were holed up in a small concrete block cabin eight feet above sea level. . There were no mandatory evacuation orders in place for her area. “The atmosphere is trying to stay alive,” she told me Tuesday. “Anxiety is scary and very unrealistic.”
Voting by mail began in Florida earlier this month. However, postal services have been suspended in many places along the Gulf Coast. Many voters will have trouble finding a functioning post office to return their ballots if they did not lose them during an evacuation or storm. County officials are already looking for new voting locations. Millions of people remain without power, areas thought to be safe are flooded, and tornadoes spawned by the hurricane have caused even more destruction. Up and down the Gulf Coast and across states, the 2024 election is the furthest thing from people’s minds. “It’s a completely destroyed campaign,” Banyai told me.
Other works by Gabriel Gurley
Florida’s hurricane history means it is one of the best-prepared states to deal with disruption. Early voting begins October 21st. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) said the hardest-hit counties could adjust mail-in procedures and in-person voting locations, as Southwest Florida has done. For the 2022 election after Hurricane Ian, Fort Myers is down from nearly 100 polling locations to 12. St. Petersburg is the largest city and as many as 40 polling stations will need to be relocated.
But Kevin Morris, a researcher at the Brennan Center for Justice, noted that the governor did not offer a new deadline for mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day, Nov. 5. Meeting deadlines will be difficult for evacuees. You will need to mail your ballot to your new address. However, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that even though many voters had begun evacuating two days before Milton’s landfall, and many more had evacuated more than a week earlier, October He refused to extend the voter registration deadline on the 7th. Helen. The judge argued, “Even if you had evacuated, you could have registered your mobile phone while you were evacuating if you had it with you.”
No matter how vigorous the federal government’s response, its efforts will not be reciprocated to Ms. Harris’s benefit.
Post-hurricane logistics may prove too complicated for some voters. “Are they going to make the effort to find a way to vote by mail? Are they going to stand in line and figure out where the relocated polling places are? If they’ve moved (or been evacuated) “Would they try to vote by mail if they had to?” asks Banyai. “From Ian’s perspective, the answer is no.”
Milton will certainly change the way presidential elections are calculated. The Democratic Party believes that if President Biden withdraws from the race and questions about abortion and marijuana are placed on the ballot, Democratic voters in Florida, independents, and a number of Republicans will support Kamala Trump against Donald Trump. He was optimistic that he might support Harris. But a poll of 600 voters conducted by The New York Times and Siena from September 29 to October 6 suggests otherwise, with Trump winning the vice president by nearly 10 points. Leading. (A Marist poll conducted from October 3rd to 7th showed Ms. Harris in a close race with Mr. Trump by 4 points.)
No matter how vigorous the federal government’s response, its efforts will not be reciprocated to Ms. Harris’s benefit. The post-Ian controversy over FEMA’s temporary housing and dissatisfaction with payments to disaster survivors compared to things like military aid to Ukraine has sparked anger among voters who have fallen prey to misinformation campaigns. Governor DeSantis’ outrage over federal aid is interpreted in partisan terms. Opponents applaud the governor’s decision to ignore Biden and Harris, but wonder why Democrats don’t want to coordinate a unified response.
While Harris’ so-called media blitz has received mostly positive reviews elsewhere, Florida political analyst Susan McManus said the state’s efforts to rebuild from natural disasters and catastrophes across large swaths of the state have been largely positive. warns that drinking beer with a late-night talk show host isn’t the best look. Government agencies are working overtime to combat misinformation campaigns.
McManus, a former political science professor at the University of South Florida, says her message on the economy is also disconnected. “Democrats are talking a lot over the heads of weekday voters,” she explains. McManus survived the storm with relatives at a pine tree farm 20 miles north of Tampa. “When I talk to Democratic groups, when we’re talking about the economy, I say go out and ask 10 people what GDP means (or) what the opportunity economy means. The words we’ve been told don’t hold together economically, and I wonder why (Harris) doesn’t have someone else to help him figure out a better way to talk about this issue.”
The race more likely to cause statewide uproar is the Senate race between Democratic former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel Powell and Republican Sen. Rick Scott. “(Mucarsel-Powell) did better because the national Democratic Party finally put money into her campaign,” McManus said. “Right now, with her ads taking over the public, there is definitely an improvement.” A Marist poll in early October had Mucarsel-Powell within two points.
The state’s generational voting trends could help Mucarsel-Powell. Millennials and Gen Z make up one-third of Florida voters. More and more young people are registering as “independents” and are more interested in candidates and issues than in party loyalty.
Scott has a roster of negative people. One of the Senate’s wealthiest members, he is a climate change denier and supporter of the state’s six-week abortion ban, a unique trait among both Democrats and many Republicans. Popular. Republicans are economically competitive and have an overall 1 million vote advantage over Democrats heading into the 2024 race, but the youth vote is a double-edged sword for both parties. In 2022, only about 23 percent of Florida voters ages 18 to 29 cast a ballot, the ninth-worst result in the nation and a staggering 10 percent decrease from 2020. Scott has one thing: he has a lot of money of his own.
After back-to-back disasters, and whatever the hurricane season, don’t expect Florida to be shaken. “The bottom line is, if your home is destroyed, you can’t even think about voting,” McManus says.
This post has been updated.
