Democrats in Florida are putting an all-out effort to get as many voters out to the polls today, where registered voters can go to specific election offices to request an absentee ballot, fill it out and turn it in. It's one way to get around the state law that officially ended "early voting" on Saturday.
Although a record number of Republicans have voted early at the polls over the past week in Florida, early voting (not to be confused with voting absentee) has always been considered something Democrats do better (which is one reason why the Legislature passed a state law reducing the number of early days to vote from 14 to eight).
And every day Democrats gain a little more in early voting in Florida, which is why the much hyped ground-game of Obama For America really will show if it's all that in how effective they can people to the polls today. On Saturday I asked Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll about the elections law from a year ago, which she said was working perfectly, because of the record turn-out. So was she saying there wouldn't be record-turnout if there weren't more days to vote? I didn't really understand her response.
In the interim, two new polls have came out this morning about the presidential race in Florida. Public Policy Polling has Obama up by one point (50-49), while an Insider Advantage poll has Romney up by five (52-47 percent).
At the same press availability that Lieutenant Governor gave us her response on early voting, CL asked former Governor Jeb Bush a couple of questions, including his response to conservatives pissed off at Chris Christie for praising President Obama during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy's destruction upon New Jersey.
Locally one of the more intriguing races on the Hillsborough County ballot is the Bob Henriquez-Ronda Storms battle for property appraiser. Henriquez sent out a tough mailer on Storms over the weekend.
On Friday night we checked out former President Clinton give a long speech extolling the virtues of Barack Obama in St. Pete - unfortunately the acoustics and the ex-prez's speaking voice made it a bit challenging to hear.
And the 6th annual Bicycle Bash in Tampa Bay took place yesterday in downtown Tampa.
