Florida News that impacts you – September 18th
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- With record votes by mail being cast for Florida’s August primaries, a record number of ballots were rejected as well. According to analysis from the University of Florida over 35,500 votes by mail were rejected in the August primaries, or about 1.5% of all votes cast by mail. This is consistent with previous elections in Florida. Based on ballots requested for November’s general election over 100,000 ballots would be invalid with all else being equitable.
- Florida’s Long-Term Care Task Force is set to meet to consider potential penalties for long-term care facilities who aren’t allowing family members to visit loved ones in the state. This comes on back of a previous warning issued by the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, stating any facility without a COVID case within 14 days must allow visitation for family members. Nearly 70% of facilities statewide are eligible.
- Florida’s Board of Governors has decided they’ll continue to allow schools to determine the number of fans allowed at sporting events as opposed to statewide mandates.
- The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is seeking public feedback to create new policy related to the state’s policy for high-risk nonnative reptiles. FWC has identified over 500 nonnative species in Florida – with 150 establishing habitats in our state. Once public feedback has been received a series of ten workshops is planned to craft new policy which will likely include the ban of many nonnatives into the state which are commonly sold as pets.