On this Monday, Oct. 12, Episode of Sundial
Record-setting Vote by Mail in Palm Beach County
Hundreds of thousands of voters in Palm Beach County have already mailed in their ballots for the November election. WLRN Palm Beach County reporter Wilkine Brutus spoke with Palm Beach County supervisor of elections Wendy Sartory Link.
She said her office is preparing for a record breaking 70 percent of ballots being mailed in this year.
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“Election officials began tabulating votes on Saturday. Of the 450,000 vote by mail requests, nearly 145,000 have been returned so far,” Brutus said.
With mail-in voting, a small percentage of ballots are rejected each year for a variety of different issues, including whether the signature on the back of the envelope matches the signature the elections office has on file.
Link says the number of rejected ballots is close to half a percent, but in a state where elections are decided on incredibly thin margins, her office is trying to get that number closer to zero.
Brutus discussed how Palm Beach County is preparing for the November election as well as the Biden campaign’s visit to South Florida, and the Democratic nominee's strategy to win over Haitian-American voters.
Flu Vaccinations Among Children
Thousands of students have returned to classrooms across South Florida, with Miami-Dade and Broward counties launching in-person teaching last week. Both school districts have web platforms for parents to monitor the number of coronavirus cases, which showed dozens testing positive in Broward along with eight students and one faculty member in Miami-Dade as of Monday.
It’s difficult for healthcare professionals to tell whether children who’ve contracted COVID-19 are sick with the virus or the common flu, since the symptoms for both are so similar. However, the impact of the virus on children has proven much different.
“While the flu virus tends to be prevalent among children, COVID is not as prevalent among children, at least the severity of the illness as it has in other adults,” said Dr. Mayrene Hernandez, senior chief health officer with UnitedHealthcare of Florida.
Dr. Hernandez explained it’s important for children to get their flu vaccinations because there could be a compounding effect if a child were to contract both viruses simultaneously. She also stressed the importance of MMR vaccines, as the long term health consequences of contracting measles, mumps or rubella can be severe.
“A lot of folks don’t realize that mumps in a young adolescent male can lead to infertility later on in adulthood, ” Hernandez said.
Indigenous Peoples' Day
More than a dozen states and Washington D.C. have replaced the federal holiday Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day. Florida is not among them.
Numerous cities across the region, including Lake Worth Beach, have called to change the name. For activist and artist Houston Cypress, with the Miccosukee Tribe, the fight for indigenous rights is part of a “beautiful struggle.”
“The reason that we're struggling for these things and fighting and showing up for each other — not just for indigenous people and not just for our siblings in the Black community — but we show up for each other because we're struggling for joy,” said Cypress on Sundial. “When we get together for our ceremonies and celebrate our own special holidays and why we are trying to save the Everglades — because of the joy that’s inherent in the land.”
Cypress is on the board of directors for We Love the Everglades Movement and a member of the Unity Coalition, a non-profit organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights.
We spoke with Cypress about Indigenous Peoples' Day and about a special event at Dezerland Park Wednesday night benefiting the Unity Coalition, a screening of the film Two Eyes.
