Free Republic

The banners, flags and T-shirts – Women for Obama, Hispanics for Obama, LBTG for Obama – plaster Democratic campaign offices in the hard fought swing state of Florida, just as in 2008. What's missing this time is the people. Four years ago Barack Obama's campaign was flooded by volunteers – the young in particular – excited by his vision of remaking America, and by the prospect of putting an African American in the White House. Now active support in Florida is visibly more sparse, and it may prove decisive as Democrats struggle to claw back the state from Mitt Romney.

As Floridians cast their first presidential votes on paperless electronic touch-screen voting machines Monday morning, a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale will begin hearing arguments on whether Florida's electronic voting systems violate the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. District Court trial on Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler's lawsuit against Florida elections officials begins on the same day that the state opens early voting for the Nov. 2 election. The timing of the trial, which will feature testimony criticizing the reliability of touch-screen voting, bothers many elections officials. "It erodes the confidence of our voters," says Pasco County Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning,...

Greta Van Susteren just did a "news alert" that Janet Reno's run for Fla. govenor is over. She suffered a "big defeat" at the hands of opponent Bill McBride.