Election Day 2026
tl;dr: if you haven't voted yet, please vote today.
Bear the History Hound has put on his Election Hound hat and has lots and lots of articles for you to read to either rise or lower your blood pressure, no matter your party preference.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington DC in February of 1968.
Table of Contents
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Finite
Disappointment
Arianne Betancourt, the woman who features prominently in my coverage of the prayer vigils outside of the former detention camp known by the racist nickname "Alligator Alcatraz" sent me this on Thursday. It is truly heartbreaking.
An instagram story about Gus, who died alone in ICE detainment.
Florida
Gonna Florida
Last year, as I pointed out at the time, Last Week Tonight did a main story focus on something some law enforcement agencies use called Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) Maneuver. I was surprised to note that Florida wasn't mentioned much in the story.
As the Miami Herald reports this week, there was good cause for my surprise: Florida Highway Patrol in 2023 changed their rules on using PIT Maneuvers and fatalities soared in the years that followed.
While the word "precision" is in the name of the maneuver, it turns out, they are often anything but, with fully a third of the people killed in Florida by FHP being innocent bystanders. Notably, even when the people killed are the suspects, the PIT Maneuver action, which some Miami-Dade County law enforcement agencies put in the same category as firing their service weapon–that is, lethal force–they fatalities seem unwarranted.
While I freely admit the people running the Miami Herald are driving me nuts (I've tried using multiple ways to share this story as a "gift article" but McClatchy's software is blocking that in multiple browsers on multiple devices, not to mention the insistence on AI taking over), this is another piece likely to make noise in the Pulitzer Prize for this year. It's that good. You need to read the full piece by Brittany Wallman and Sofia Saric
It is worth noting that the man responsible for this policy change, Dave Kerner, is a Democrat who crossed party lines to endorse Ron DeSantis in 2024 and was rewarded with the top position in Florida's transportation department.
It is also worth noting that he explicitly tied PIT Maneuvers to increasing police funding for the Florida Highway Patrol.
Per Brittany Wallman and Sofia Saric's reporting:
When Kerner took over, the Florida Highway Patrol was struggling for money from state legislators. He thought the agency faced an existential crisis and needed a “broader mission to survive,” he said in a podcast episode. Since then, the agency took on its new pursuit role [encouraging FHP to use PIT Maneuvers often], and also signed on to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) find and detain illegal immigrants. The Florida Highway Patrol’s operating budget has grown about 72% during the past decade, according to records released on the state’s website, Transparency Florida. The agency’s budget increased from more than $252 million in the budget year 2016–2017 to about $433 million in the current budget year 2026–2027.
When some liberals talk about "defunding the police" this is exactly what they're talking about. No one wants lawlessness (ok, mostly no one, anarchists sometimes do). Dave Kerner is ordering that FHP use lethal force in situations where it is unwarranted and is killing innocent bystanders to increase Florida Highway Patrol's budget. Are people really ok with that?
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Local! Not an ad–an endorsement!
Some time in the last month the Miami New Times lost its editor for some reason and last I knew hasn't found them. Their reporting, in my opinion, has suffered greatly. Meanwhile, the Miami Herald has continued to churn out outstanding reporting despite its parent company's parent company, Chatham Asset Management, trying to destroy the once venerable paper.
It looks like some passengers on the good ship Miami Herald have left.
Natasha Yee
This week it was announced that Miami Herald's award winning partnership with the local NPR station, WLRN, has either ended or been split: WLRN is now partnering with the Miami New Times.
To be clear, Miami New Times is owned by a private company based out of Colorado–it is not technically local. Also, I have a whole thing this week on Miami Herald reporting, their newsroom is still outstanding.
That said, I cancelled my subscription to the Herald this week (also a factor: their paywall was broken and kept forcing me to act like a non-subscriber) and I'm upping my subscription to the Miami New Times and, of course, I'm a donor to WLRN.
The Miami New Times has been distracted by all that's shiney in South Florida and South Florida is the capital of shiney and useless. That said, WLRN is outstanding and if the Miami New Times wants to stand with WLRN, then that signals to me that MNT is seriously upping its actual news game.
Buy local. **** Chatham Asset Management. Rest in Peace, Miami Herald.
Historic
Interlude
"On November 2, 1920, African Americans prepared to storm the walls of segregation...African Americans in Florida had created the first statewide civil rights movement in U.S. History." From the introduction to Emancipation Betrayed by Paul Ortiz.
The 1920 Florida general election was also the bloodiest in history. White supremacists realizing that Black voters had organized and were turning out in droves met them at the polls and simply murdered them. Dozens of people were murdered, homes and businesses were burned and hundreds, if not thousands of Black Floridians were denied the ballot.
The Florida Election of 1920 is also known as the Ocoee Massacre and is emblematic of how far white supremacists are willing to go to maintain their grip on power.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but my grandmother, who voted in North Carolina this week, was born only 7 years after this massacre. This is not that long ago.
Infinite
Hope
While most Americans are worried about election day shenanigans from "the other side," the reality is that we do have elections, we can vote, our vote does make a difference and, contrary to a lot of worry out there, so far our elections have been secure.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, Moldova, Hungary, and Serbia, autocrats have tried to keep their grip (or regain it) on fair elections and have been denied by free and fair elections.
Our right to vote, which we hold so dearly, is a relatively new phenomena. Women only gained the right to vote in the United States just over 100 years ago. Black Americans were functionally denied the vote until 1968 in much of the United States, including Florida.
Democracy is never guaranteed, especially when the electorate becomes convinced otherwise. Voting is the best thing we can do and thankfully, most of us can vote.
All of us who can should.
I go into this election hopeful that our democracy will continue to hold.
Bear
The Election Hound Finds
Jen Fifield and Peter Elkind
Parker Molloy
Ryan Sabalow, Jeanne Kuang
Chris Young
G. Elliott Morris
Daniel W. Drezner
Charlotte Clymer
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