What issue matters most to Floridian’s right now?
Bottom Line: A year into a pandemic you might imagine something to do with it would be the top issue on the minds of most Floridians. In the context of the 2021 Florida legislative session, that doesn’t appear to be the case. In fact, based on the survey work from Florida Trend, I’m becoming even more encouraged by what Floridians are prioritizing from our state legislators. The easy thing to do when something goes well is to ignore it – even if you know there are still potential points of failure with it. In this context I’m talking about Florida’s election integrity. While Florida conducted a model election cycle in 2020, there were still numerous potential points of failure in Florida’s process. This was illustrated with Harvard’s Election Integrity Project rating Florida’s integrity at only a 75 out of 100. Appropriately, Harvard alum Governor Ron DeSantis has made election integrity a priority in this year's session and it’s evident Floridians want to see action. In fact, it’s the top issue identified by those surveyed. Here are the top five surveyed issues:
- #1: Voter rights – 22%
- #2: Tie: Vaccines & Unemployment reform – 15%
- #4: Tie: Health care & Environment – 14%
There’s a good chance all five issues will see action during this year’s session but it’s notable that a year into the pandemic – related concerns are only represented as a top issue for 15% of Floridians. In many respects that’s a testament to Florida’s relative success at managing the pandemic and vaccination programs. There’s no issue more important to our country, our state, or our communities than the way we conduct our elections. It’s good to see it’s the top issue for Floridians right now. Building upon the success of last year’s election cycle is preferable than managing to a crisis at some point in the future if the vulnerabilities in our processes are exploited. I’ll keep you posted about what happens with this and the other key issues during the state session in the coming weeks.
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