By JIM TURNER
News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE – Damage assessments continue to roll in from Hurricanes Milton and Helene, with insurance losses topping $3.67 billion and agricultural damages exceeding $3 billion.

Amid debris cleanup in storm-ravaged communities, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an order this week giving supervisors of elections some flexibility to help ensure voters are able to cast ballots in the Nov. 5 elections.

COUNTDOWN TO NOVEMBER

Nearly a million Florida voters submitted mail-in ballots by midday Friday, according to the state Division of Elections website. Early voting begins in many counties on Monday.
DeSantis on Thursday approved voting-related changes in counties hammered by Milton, the second time in less than a month flexibility was needed because of catastrophic storm damage.
The governor said his order allows supervisors “to make, you know, reasonable, modest but reasonable, accommodations if they have had damage to any of their voting sites because of the storm, and to be able to ensure that folks have an ability and a place to be able to cast their ballot.”
The order lets supervisors of elections in Milton-affected counties consolidate polling sites and eases the ability of displaced voters to obtain mail-in ballots. DeSantis earlier this month issued a similar order giving flexibility to supervisors in counties affected by Helene.
Milton caused flooding at polling sites in Manatee County and destroyed a voting location that was part of a mobile-home park, Satcher said.
“We were only going to have to move one polling place after Helene, but obviously after Milton we had more spots that we’re having to move and combine,” Manatee County Supervisor of Elections James Satcher told The News Service of Florida this week.
With voting by mail already under way, supervisors in affected areas are rushing to inform voters about upcoming changes.
The pair of storms wreaked havoc in Pinellas County, with 15 precincts damaged by Helene alone. Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus has launched a dedicated web page to address the storm-related changes and issued an update Thursday. The county has relocated 25 polling places for Election Day but none of the supervisor’s early-voting sites or drop-box locations have changed, Marcus said in a news release.
In Sarasota County, Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner moved eight polling sites because of storm damage and established a consolidated voting site for lost precincts.
Brad Ashwell, Florida state director of the group All Voting is Local, acknowledged the storm-related orders will help alleviate pressure on voters but said they don’t go far enough.
“There’s just a tremendous potential for voter confusion here, and we really need to see all officials, but ideally the state … making this information easy to find wherever a voter is likely to look for it,” Ashwell said.

SPARRING OVER A SENATE SEAT

Voters in a North Florida legislative district on Tuesday got a glimpse of the candidates going head-to-head for a hotly contested Senate seat.
Republican Sen. Corey Simon, a former Florida State University football star who went on to play in the NFL, is trying to fend off a challenge from prominent Tallahassee lawyer Daryl Parks.
The pair tangled on abortion, education and their records during an hourlong debate at the Capital Tiger Bay Club in Tallahassee. They also argued about property insurance, as the district has been hit by three hurricanes in just over a year.
“I passed a disaster-relief bill worth over $400 million to get resources back into our communities,” Simon said, adding that he established a “revolving-loan” program for farmers hit by the storms.
“Those are the things we need to focus on,” Simon said, when asked what lawmakers should do about the insurance issue during the 2025 legislative session, which will begin in March.
Parks criticized the senator for supporting a sweeping insurance measure that made it harder for property owners to sue insurers in disputes over claims. The Democrat rattled off statistics he said came from the Office of Insurance Regulation showing that a large number of property-insurance claims from Hurricane Idalia and Hurricane Debby had been denied.
“The bill that he helped pass limits the time that property owners can file claims, makes it harder to file suits, and now we see the byproduct,” Parks said. “As your state senator, I will be watching. The information I just gave you is from the Office of Insurance Regulation. He should already know that information.”

‘MOOT’ MONEY

The Florida Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up appeals by Florida Defenders of the Environment, the Florida Wildlife Federation, St. Johns Riverkeeper, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida and the Sierra Club in a long-running fight about state conservation funding.
As is common, the court did not explain its reasons.
The environmental groups argued money from a 2014 constitutional amendment that requires a portion of real-estate documentary stamp tax revenues be used for conservation efforts was improperly diverted from by the state from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund to other expenses.
However, in February, a three-judge appeals panel agreed with a 2022 decision by Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh that the issue no longer was applicable as the funding involving budget decisions for the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
“Key to our analysis is the narrow scope within which the plaintiffs consistently framed their claims,” the appeals-court ruling said. “They alone controlled their pleadings, and they challenged only the validity of specific 2015-16 appropriations, asking the trial court to order those funds returned to the LATF (Land Acquisition Trust Fund). … The claims were moot.”

STORY OF THE WEEK: With early voting beginning in many counties Monday amid storm recovery efforts, supervisors of elections in areas hard hit by Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene began to make adjustments in preparation for the Nov. 5 election.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We recognize our opinion may make criminal prosecutions for animal cruelty more challenging for the state when a defendant claims self-defense. … However, it is up to the Legislature to address the issue as it sees fit.” – A footnote in a 4th District Court of Appeal decision establishing that Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense law can apply to cases involving animals. Wednesday’s ruling came in a case stemming from a man who killed a pit bull when he and his Chihuahua felt threatened.