Across Central Florida, voting is well underway. As of noon Wednesday, roughly 10% of registered, active voters have already cast their ballots, either through mail balloting or at the early voting sites that opened Monday across the region. And so far, things seem to be operating smoothly \u2014 something local residents have grown to expect, given the high caliber of local elections officials and the careful oversight of political parties. Of course, there are silly rumors circulating on social media: This year, there are bogus reports of elections workers somehow secretly marking ballots \u2014 which is flatly untrue and all but impossible, given the security measures that are in place in every county elections office. There\u2019s also a level of anxiety about potential confrontations at the polls, but so far, local elections officials say things are calm.<\/p>\n
Even so, we\u2019re urging local residents to consider their voting options carefully \u2014 particularly if they are worried that their ballot might be challenged. By state policy, requests for mail ballots must be received by local elections offices by 5 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 22), and all ballots must be returned by the time polls close on Nov. 3. However, there are still options for those who worry they might not be able to make it to an early voting site or to their precinct on Election Day: The best option is to contact your local supervisor\u2019s office and ask for help.<\/p>\n
Voting early, either by mail or at an early-voting site, gives voters a buffer; if they need to update their identification or submit documentation, they have time. (If you\u2019ve previously voted by mail but have not yet received a ballot, it\u2019s likely your request needs to be renewed.) Of course, there is always the option of in-person voting for those who want to wait until Election Day, Nov. 3 \u2014 though it\u2019s usually a good idea to check to be sure your precinct number or voting location hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
And of course, there\u2019s the most daunting task of all: Deciding who to vote for. Today, we\u2019re reprinting the list of the Orlando Sentinel\u2019s election endorsements, but there\u2019s plenty of time to do your own research as well.<\/p>\n
U.S. Congress<\/p>\n
District 7: Bale Dalton<\/p>\n
District 8: Mike Haridopolos<\/p>\n
District 9: Darren Soto<\/p>\n
District 11: James Pericola<\/p>\n
Florida Cabinet<\/p>\n
Attorney General: Jose Javier Rodriguez<\/p>\n
Chief Financial Officer: Annette Taddeo<\/p>\n
Commissioner of Agriculture: Joey Mendoza Atkins<\/p>\n
Florida Amendments<\/p>\n
Amendment 1: No<\/p>\n
Amendment 2: No<\/p>\n
Amendment 3: No<\/p>\n
Courts<\/p>\n
Retain Supreme Court Justice Carlos G. Mu\u00f1iz: No<\/p>\n
Retain District Court of Appeal Justice John M. Harris: Yes<\/p>\n
Retain District Court of Appeal Justice Scott D. Makar: Yes<\/p>\n
Retain District Court of Appeal Justice F. Rand Wallis: Yes<\/p>\n
9th Circuit Judge Group 1: Temika Hampton-Johnson<\/p>\n
Seminole County Court Judge Group 6: Alena Chaban<\/p>\n
Florida Senate<\/p>\n
District 10: John Lowndes<\/p>\n
Florida House<\/p>\n
District 25: Farmer Banks Helfrich<\/p>\n
District 26: Robyn Elaine Lawrence<\/p>\n
District 35: Eric Gray<\/p>\n
District 36: Darryl Block<\/p>\n
District 37: Jane Aman<\/p>\n
District 38: Nik Dean<\/p>\n
District 39: Jarod Fox<\/p>\n
District 40: RaShon Young<\/p>\n
District 42: Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet<\/p>\n
District 43: Samuel Vilchez Santiago<\/p>\n
District 45: Leonard Spencer<\/p>\n
District 46: Jose Alvarez<\/p>\n
Lake County<\/p>\n
Lake County School referendum: Yes<\/p>\n
Lake County Commission District 4: Leslie Campione<\/p>\n
Orange County<\/p>\n
Orange County Mayor: Tiffany Moore Russell<\/p>\n
Orange County Commission District 2: Kamia Brown<\/p>\n
Orange County Commission District 4: Johanna L\u00f3pez<\/p>\n
Orange County Commission District 6: Michael Scott<\/p>\n
Orange County Commission District 7: Patricia Rumph<\/p>\n
Orange County Commission District 8: Victor Torres<\/p>\n
Orange County School Board District 3: Susanne Pe\u00f1a<\/p>\n
Orange County Clerk of Court: Roberta Walton Johnson<\/p>\n
Osceola County<\/p>\n
Osceola County School referendum: Yes<\/p>\n
Osceola County Commission District 2: Viviana Janer<\/p>\n
Osceola County Commission District 4: Mary Downey<\/p>\n
Seminole County<\/p>\n
Seminole County Commission District 4: Amy Lockhart<\/p>\n
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Executive Editor Roger Simmons and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Use insight@orlandosentinel.com to contact us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Across Central Florida, voting is well underway. As of noon Wednesday, roughly 10% of registered, active voters have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2853,482,139,141,140,109,76410],"class_list":["post-435680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-editorials","tag-opinion","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}