The Florida votes will be counted and the winners announced
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the primary election in Florida (all times local):
3:50 p.m.
For Florida voters Christi Lane Fritz and Kevin Fritz, the most important issues on their minds as they went to vote at a senior center in downtown Orlando were gun control and the environment.
They wanted to see a ban on the bump stock, waiting periods for gun purchases, tighter controls on assault weapons and stricter background check on gun buyers. Keeping the waters around the Florida peninsula free of oil rigs was at the top of their list “for tourism, for one thing, and our general health,” said Kevin Fritz, who runs a communications firm.
The Orlando couple had a hard time deciding on the Democratic gubernatorial candidate since several of the five candidates shared so many similar positions. They settled on Gwen Graham within the last few days.
“There wasn’t so much a defining factor as much as going with my gut,” said Christi Lane Fritz.
2:50 p.m.
Corrie Decker has kids in public schools so education was her priority when she went to vote Tuesday at a senior center in downtown Orlando, dodging raindrops on the way. She wanted to see higher pay for teachers and a pullback from high-stakes testing.
“We need pressure from the government for testing to let up because my kids are very of stressed by all the testing,” said Decker, who lives in Orlando. “It plays too big a role in our lives.”
Decker and her husband were on the fence for a long time on who to vote for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. They don’t have cable television and didn’t see many candidate ads so they made their decision in the past few days by doing a lot of reading in newspapers and online. They picked Gwen Graham.
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2:45 p.m.
A Florida Republican was trying to decide between a candidate for governor endorsed by President Donald Trump and the state’s agriculture commissioner as he entered a polling place in Fort Lauderdale.
Don Cook, a 42-year-old who works in software marketing, says he was leaning toward agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam on Tuesday.
Cook says he’s a “relationship guy” who votes for the candidates that give him the “warm and fuzzies.” He described Putnam as having that “guy next door appeal,” holding downhome barbeques while DeSantis made rounds on Fox television.
He says he wonders if Putnam’s strategy will prevail because “the population watches the news.”
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