willkie to consider being his vice president when he's going to overthrow henry wallace and he wants somebody new. typical fdr. and willkie says no. >> sunday night at eight eastern on "q&a" on c-span. >> we continue our conversation with a look at florida with susan mac man us in who is a political -- macmanus joining us this morning from tampa. good morning to you. >> guest: good morning. >> host: well, let's begin with how the florida voters break down by party. explain the breakdown and what impact that could have. >> guest: well, to put it mildly, we're pretty much a tie thed state. we have the -- tied state. we have the closest gap between democrats and republicans ever in the state's history. but right now 37% registered democrats, 35% register republicans, 27% no party

affiliation, fastest growing group, and another 1% the minor party, the largest of which would be libertarians. very, very divided state. >> host: so who could make the difference here in some of these key senate, house races and also the gubernatorial race? >> guest: we're really carefully watching that large group called the npas, or no-party affiliation. a sizable portion, about 58 president of those, are younger voters. and by that, i mean the three youngest generations which would be generation x, the millennials and gen-zers. today reallyne have the clout ts time to affect the outcome of the governor's race, the u.s. senate race. the big question now is their turnout. millions have been spent in this state to register young voters and to hire people on the ground to try to get them to the polls. so we shall see. it's the most competitive state in the country, the purpose of purple states. -- purplest of

purple states. >> host: yeah. take a look at the registration of young voters, generation x makesun up about 23%, millennias 24%, around three million, and hashtag generation, a little bit less, a quart every of a million, 4%. so what issues do these young people care about? >> guest: it varies a lot, but the bottom line is they're looking for, as i say, new faces in high places. they're really tired of politics as usual. that's why you see a number of particularly the youngest two generations sort of turning their backs on the two parties. they're very drawn to the candidates. they like someone who's inspiring, someone who talks to their issues which, obviously, include for particularly millennials jobs, college debt, college loans, health care, for example. but a big issue with this younger demographic that's really changed politics in florida in a way is their real

strong interest in the environment. and what we see in polls around gflorida on issues is that the environment has escalated to the point of where it's usually among the top three or four issues that people mention when they're asking or asked what are the most important issues facing florida.ss they also are very much supportive of diversity. that would be gender and racial and ethnic diversity. if because a sizable portion -- sizable portion of these younger registrants in florida are racially and ethnically diverse themselves. >> host: we want the hear from all florida residents this morning how do you plan to vote oror if you've voted already, wo did you vote for and why? 202-748-8000 is your number. all others, 8001. susan macmanus, where do these younger voters live, and where could they make the difference ein house races? >> guest: they live all over state. but, obviously, a large concentration along the i-4

corpser the that adam mentioned -- corridor is sort of the swing part of state. because two of state's largest universities, university of south florida in tampa and university of central florida in orlando, have very, very large student bodies, and there have been some extremely aggressive get out the vote and registration drives there. south florida. sowell florida has a young everybody -- south florida has a younger population, particularly the minority populations are young. a lot oftila aggressive registrn drives going on there. so, certainly, they can affect these very competitive congressional districts, but they're also going to affect governor's race and the senate if they turn out as we're thinking they might, at least we are expecting their turnout to be a bit higher. but they need to have a pretty high turnout to tip the direction of the election. it is true that they're most drawn interest wise to our

extremely interesting governor's race, much more so than the u.s. senate race. after all, two candidates for governor, one is 40 years old and the other is 39. so it's just really fascinating. you cannot refuse or ignore this younger demographic particularly in these swing and very competitive areas. >> host: well, in that race what are the issues that are playing out? is and how, how to these younger people view those issues? >> guest: big issues for the young are, again, economy always, jobs and the environment and health care, and i think thmore recently they are also vy interestedea in immigration even though that's just been an issue that's come unfairly recently. come up fairly recently. but the top three are in education, the economy, health care and the environment. >> host: "the new york times" has a headline this morning,

trump favorite in florida struggles to rise up to the racial stumbles. and here's a quote by his challenger, mr. gillam, spied his opening and pounced, it says, at a recent debate. i'm not calling mr. desantis a racist, i'm simply saying the racists believe he's a racist. is this issue resonating? >> guest: somewhat, but i think they're still really interested in the candidate and the candidate's persona. one of the things that gillam did to win the nomination, the democratic nomination among five other -- four other candidates was to really target younger and minority voters and to go personally to them. you know, '68 was the year i graduated from college, and we're 50 years later, and activism was the key on college campuses in 1968. we've almost come full circle now where you see activism and aggressive outreach to these young college students again. forou a while there we didn't.

desantis is clearly appealing to the more conservative, economically-focused younger voter and people with military backgrounds and their family. many contrast -- in contrast, gillam is appealing to the democratic-leaning, progressive in their policy stances and also really interested in diversity, racial diversity. >> host: on florida senate race, how is the environmental issues, the algae t blooms that florida has been struggling with, how is that impacting the race between governor rick scott and the incumbent, bill nelson? >> guest: early on you would see each of the candidates pointing to the other for the reasons why florida's having environmental issues. for example, rick scott pointed his finger at bill nelson, a democrat in washington, said washington isn't responding, you're not effective, you're not bringing the money home to fix some of theer problems that you

said you were going to. in turn, bill nelson points the finger back at the state, looks at the governor and says you haven't really been attentive to the environment like you should because you have put some people on water management boards that aren't attentive or particularly in tune with some of the climate change and environmental issues. so i think we've moved beyond that right now to where scientists are weighing more in and having a bit more influence. you won't find a lot of people who say that the red tide or the algae bloom are the responsibility of a single person. but what we have seen is that the, red tide, which is dead fish, and the visuals are compelling. the green slime for the algae bloom and the dead fish on the coasts have caused a lot of typical republican voters to take a second look. because it's affecting the economies of these areas, small businesses that rely on tourism

especially this time of year to boost economy. and florida also has a very large commercial fishing industry. it is exactly why donald trump and rick scott appeared for the first time in a while together in fort myers this week, was to try to shore up support among some of the republicans in that area, an area most affected by algae bloom, to come back home and vote republican. because scott did lose some republican votes in the primary because of the environmental issues. so it's a big issue. you cannot look at a television set for more than five seconds without seeing ads on these two -- about these two candidates. and the environment tends to be a big part of each of their ads. >> host: let's go to barbara who's in miami. barbara, how do you plan to vote and why? >> caller: oh, good morning. >> host: morning. >> caller: i already voted, and the primary reason i voted was

to cast my vote for governor rick scott. andso the reason i did that is he's promoted the state in all kinds of ways. we have a great economy. he was right out there when hurricanes occurred in the state. he wasn't campaigning, he was out trying to get things going and help people in upper part of thein state. and one thing i thought was interesting, and maybe your guest can comment, is the ads that appear in favor of rick scott show an empty suit, a suit jacket, and says bill nelson, what this is has he done? he's w an empty suit that's been in politics for 40 years. and i have to say, i think that's true. i can't think of one bill that governor -- pardon me, senator nelson has sponsored. i can't think of anything he's done, to be honest with you. >> host: are you a lifelong republican? >> caller: no. like most college kids, i

started out as a democrat, and i switched parties about, oh, ten years ago. >> host: okay. susan macmanus. >> guest: it is true that one of the most powerful early ads run by scott supporters against nelson was one that stressed how long he's been in office. and that that's still running. 45 years. this is not the year that longevity in office is particularly something you want to put at top of your resumé as a candidate. and nelson's had to play catch-up. he sort of waited a little bit late to enter the contest following the more traditional pattern many florida which historically has been don't bother starting to campaign for a statewide race until after labor day because it's hot in florida in august, and a lot of people are vacationing where it's cooler, kids are going back to school and so forth. so nelson himself has caught a lot of flak from democrats as well as republicans for waiting a little bit late. it is true that rick scott's recent ads which just started

airing this week, very strong ad on counting how well he responded to hurricane michael. and polls do show that voters give him pretty good marks for how he handled hurricane because for the last two hurricane irma and michael, he's been much more aggressive before hurricanes and not just after. but then again, some people say that that's expected, and that's not a real reason they'll vote for one person or another. but this race is very tight. it's been even tighter than the governor's race from day one, and we'rere seeing that the ads are reflecting the asset of each, and the other is trying to draw out the liabilities. ..

>> caller: yes, thank you. yes, bill nelson's been there over 40 something years. i mean that's clearly a message that he needs to go. but that's my personal opinion. the question i have about the governor's race which is pretty interesting, the guy on the democrat fellow, i mean he doesn't seem to be much of a uniter and at such a time of divisiveness and the economy being so important because i know florida got hit, you know, at the end of the bush era and with mr. obama when he was in there, and the economy didn't grow that much, how is he coming across strong on the economy and uniting people, which is what is needed? could you answer that? thank you. >> the sort of economic platform is twofold. one, he is strongly in favor of increasing the minimum wage to

$15 an hour. and secondly, he's really emphasized the need to close the income gap between the wealthy and the poor in the state, and he is also arguing that people are still being left behind even spite of the booming economy. and often points to the fact that many of these new jobs are sort of minimum wage type jobs. desantis on the other hand has really heavily campaigned on a strong economy in florida and his angle is that an election of gillum would cause damage to the economy because a lot of the things that gillum is proposing are so expensive that taxes would have to be raised, so again, republicans relying more on tax arguments as important to the sustenance of florida's economy, and the democrat gillum

arguing more that it could be better, that some people are being left behind. >> susan, on election night, where will you be? what areas will you be watching of the state and how will you know it's a good night for the democrats or the republicans? >> well, i live in the famous i-4 corridor. i live in the tampa area. i will be on the abc tampa affiliate, abc action news. i'm their analyst election night even though i take calls from a lot of different outlets of the state, i'm certainly watching the i 4 corridor and really watching areas, precincts that have a lot of younger voters because i think they are critical. but traditionally those of us who watch florida politics really keep a really sharp eye on turnout and voting patterns in some of the suburban areas, particularly areas where it has a modest income but family

oriented make-up, the county in my area, north of tampa is one of those kind of bellwether counties that we carefully watch. and why are we focused on the suburban mom in particular? because historically in florida, we've seen that she can really make a difference in switching from one party to another, and often the angle that drives the suburban mom is how policies are going to affect her children. >> and so with early voting, is there any indication that the suburban mom is leaning toward one party or the other? >> right now it's looking like it's following a traditional sort of party line, but i think it's too soon to tell in a way. moms often do vote early, but they also vote on election day, so i think it's still unknown. i can tell you, though, for example, in the congressional 15 race between, you know, that it

is getting a lot of attention in the tampa media market. by the way, this market is florida's largest out of 10, 24% of all florida registered voters live in the tampa media market, which is the most competitive. but in that race, you can see the democrat carlson's ads really aiming at the suburban mom. and she's gotten a lot of support from women groups, and they are counting on the fact that if there can be a flip of a congressional district, it's going to be because of these suburban moms, and it is definitely reflected in the content of her ads. >> let's take a look at one of the ads. this is g.o.p. congressional leadership fund, attacking carlson. >> nancy pelosi's liberal allies are funding carlson's campaign. why? because carlson supports pelosi's tax raising agenda. she supports raising taxs on middle class families and oppose tax relief for small businesses. kristen carlson even supports a

big government spending scheme that could lead to doubling the national debt and trillions in new taxes. nancy pelosi and kristen carlson would make you pay more. congressional leadership fund is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> and the response to that ad by the carlson campaign, the d triple c, they tout her experience. >> sometimes you have to stand up as a prosecutor i stood up to criminals who harmed seniors, women and children. i stood up to importers that ripped off florida taxpayers and out of state companies that sold contaminated orange juice to schools and in congress i will stand up to special interests and work with both parties to bring down healthcare costs and lower taxes for the middle class. i'm kristen carlson, and i approve this message because we need to stand up for florida. >> susan, the impact of those ads? >> well, as we said, they are each trying to grab the attention of the suburban mom,

but in general i will say of course we've almost had a quarter of a billion dollars in tv ads in florida, the most in the whole country, this election cycle, but it is true in a way that carlson's -- that ad against carlson is typical of many in these swing districts. it might as well be the case that trump and pelosi are on the ballot because they are in so many political ads in florida ushg -- florida, one side or the other. do think the carlson ad where it is more positive and she has her arms around young children and it is upbeat and sunny is a better ad for her than the one that was run by the other groups. that's continuing now as the election runs to its end. >> linda, good morning to you. >> caller: i have had a number of comments but i'm hearing all of these wonderful things about governor scott and i wanted to

mention that under rick scott, public education is a disaster in florida. healthcare a disaster. dead fish all over our beaches. rick scott. democrats have not done a good job informing voters and, you know, informing voters in florida and elsewhere, democrats need help with their media coverage and they need better strategists. they really haven't done a good job of informing florida voters about rick scott's record here. reminding them, public education, i think democrats and republicans underestimate or misevaluate what really is of concern to voters and why. so i voted democrat. straight down the line. i wanted to also say that i

early voted yesterday. i was in line. and nobody seemed to -- there's a lot of new voters. nobody seemed to know anything about the amendments. we are a poorly-educated, poorly-informed -- rather -- electorate. the media has a lot to do with that. >> linda, let's leave it there. susan, you can talk about the issues but also for those that don't know, what are some issues on the ballot? >> we have 12 proposed constitutional amendments, and they are at the end of a very long ballot. in fact, this is one of the longest ballots the floridians have had to maneuver through in quite some time. many of the tv stations and blogs and so forth have tried to inform people about the amendments, but they are very legalistic and very hard to understand. but they range in everything from tax related and budget related items to things like prohibiting dog racing or one that asks people to vote for one

that both outlaws offshore oil drilling and has rules about vaping. i mean we had a lot of these amendments that were bundled together because florida has three different ways of putting amendments on the ballot, one by the legislature, which is a lot of financial ones were put there by them. secondly, by citizen petition, a very big one that's getting a lot of attention, restoration, automatic restoration of voting rights was put on there by citizen petition. but then florida has a third way of getting something on the ballot, which is called a constitutional revision commission, and they can put whatever they want on there. and frankly, the most confusing ones are coming from the constitutional revision commission, which ended up bundling two or three things together, which means that if you're a voter and you have to decide whether to vote yes or no on the amendment, you kind of have to just wade your way through of them. some of them have as many as four different parts.

to answer your viewer's very excellent comment, it is so hard to cover all of the multitude hot races, big issues, and to do it in a way that's thoroughly informative. you can't do it with a typical newscast where you can spend, what, a minute or so on an issue. you can't do it in a newspaper, a little bit more in depth there, but a lot of people don't subscribe and readership is falling off. so in other words, this is a big state, 13 million plus voters, lots of issues, and i think so many voters feel most uncomfortable and uneasy about those 12 amendments at the end of the ballot because there have even been millions of dollars spent on those. a big gambling issue. you had millions of dollars spent for and against it to the point where voters are scratching their heads and saying i don't know really what i think about it.

so i think it's just the multitude and magnitude of issues and candidates and races this year that are competitive. it is hard to follow everything. >> yeah. shirley is a resident in florida, tallahassee. you are on the air. >> caller: good morning. good morning to you, professor, your long-term service in the state. florida economy -- since the great recession and the impact has been uneven. we have a state here -- i'm in tallahassee, the capital city, where the governor's race is going to of course bring one of the candidates to reside. we in florida here have shown signs of improvement since the 2012 to answer the gentleman's question about the economy, that obama somehow had as a slowing,

we did have a major recession and we had a 40 to 60 percent housing bubble that burst. yet the households in florida are struggling financially. and that increased struggle and cost of living continues to exceed than what most saw. the basic need that it takes to survive for housing here in florida, for child care, for food, healthcare and transportation, to get to the context of -- those are the people -- we have major influencers that -- [inaudible] -- these are not social people. these are the president of the florida chamber. the president of the united way. the different agencies, social service agencies, nonprofits,

they too speak of the need that many floridians are living in poverty. >> shirley, i'm going to leave it there so i can get in other callers as well. susan? >> affordable housing is a big big problem in many parts of the state. it is why the business community and others are trying to get together to deal with their problems. she's absolutely right. and the service sector, the nature of our economy is changing. we are becoming a more economically diverse state, but you still have large concentrations of people who do live in large metropolitan areas where cost of living is higher than other places. and they struggle to just meet the basics. this of course has been the centerpiece of the gubernatorial campaign in particular, and it's certainly one of the arguments that andrew gillum has made a lot. and obviously many many more affluent communities are really worried about the affordable

housing issue. initially, the lieutenant governor running mate of gillum chris king made that when he was trying to become the nominee, made that a centerpiece of his campaign. it caught a lot of attention, but it unfortunately hasn't really dominated to the degree that probably democrats wish that it had, such as your viewer just expressed. >> mary's in louisiana. good morning. >> caller: good morning. >> question or comment here, mary, go ahead. >> caller: okay. i want to comment on the governor's race in georgia and in florida. >> okay. >> caller: okay. i'm -- i'm going to say something that most people are afraid to say, but i know it for a fact because it is right in the next city right across the river from me. okay. if they elect ms. abrams in georgia as the governor, they're

going to destroy that state. i know for a fact. okay? and florida if they elect -- i think it is mr. gillum, they are going take that away all the tax stuff in florida. >> how do you know that for a fact? >> caller: i live right across from shreveport. they elect a black mayor. he got two terms. then they turned around elected a black woman mayor. she's ending her first term as now. the city has turned into a war zone. you can't walk down the street. they're killing people every night.

i live right across the street. over here, women are walking across the street and pushing their babies in a stroller. >> mary making the association that all black officials would do the same thing. susan, what kind of arguments are being made that have that racial overtone to them in this florida race and the governor's race? >> obviously when you have racial diversity among the candidates, you can't help but talk about race. for example, the two candidates when asked about automatic restoration of voting rights, that would be amendment 4 on the ballot, take a slightly different tact to it as well as some of the other amendments like victims' rights which is patterned after marcy's law. you see it there, and of course mayor gillum has, you know, been

attacked for some fbi investigation, and of course then his supporters say well, that's racist. and of course desantis has made some comments about have the equivalent of dog whistles, kind of comment he made the night he got the nomination. it's been a thread that's running through a lot of discussion. the last debate really race was probably one of the preeminent parts. you have heard it characterized as all about race on the one hand and corruption on the other. so this is where we're at right now. but floridians are a very diverse group of people. for example, over 1/3 of our registered voters are nonwhite. and that number is growing every day. i know a lot of floridians feel

uncomfortable about race being the centerpiece because they realize that florida is an immigrant magnet state. meaning we attract people from all over the world and other parts of the country and that diversity is one of the important things that keeps our economy afloat. it's a very difficult issue. politicians don't want to talk about it. but it's a thread that you see very much woven into the gubernatorial campaign. >> what about the minority vote? what impact could minority voters have on the election? >> obviously very much so because in the past, when we've had the 1% margin of victory for governor's races, it's been a lag in black turnout that has been the problem for democrats. that is not going to be a problem this time. blacks are clearly on board and cohesive in their support for andrew gillum. but it's also true that hispanics are a larger share of florida's electorate now than blacks. it's about 16 1/2% of our

registrants are hispanic, and around 13 point something percent are african-american. obviously hispanics are less cohesive in their voting patterns because so much of hispanic politics is related to country of origin or country of identity with their families, and you will see variations, for example, in how a mexican-american would vote in florida versus an older cuban. but turnout of minorities can be the difference because as we say in florida, when you have 1% elections, every group can legitimately say if you don't appeal to us, you lose, and they would be right. >> susan, the headline in the "miami herald" recently post hurricane maria, puerto ricans won't swing florida's election. >> the figure that was initially

touted, the 300,000 figure that got a lot of coverage early on after the storm was very much inflated and people now acknowledge that it wasn't a very scientific way of grabbing that number. the number is now closer, some estimates by, university of florida, bureau of economic and business research show it's around 50 to 80,000. we also know that a number of these new arrived puerto ricans are still worried about putting their lives back together. politics is not their number one priority. but we also know that it takes a lot of education of new puerto rican s to understand the two party system. democrat and republican are really party terms that don't mean a lot to them. and secondly, this came as a result of having two young puerto rican students in my class last semester who informed

me that another difficulty that newly arrived puerto ricans is they don't quite understand this federal system of government. they've not heard of county commission and school board and legislative contests and cabinet races. we have three state-wide cabinet races that are elected posts, very confusing. but it is true that both parties have aggressively been courting these new arrived puerto ricans for the simple reason that the party share of the electorate is shrinking somewhat and the no party affiliation is on the upswing. and in a way i think both parties acknowledge that 2018 may not be the year that this new mass of puerto ricans voters will make their biggest impact. they are thinking it will be more likely the 2020 presidential race, which is exactly, again, why both parties are aggressively reaching out to these new arrivals. >> mary's in fort walton beach,

florida. you are on the air, mary. we will go on to jim who is in st. petersburg, florida. hey, jim. >> caller: yes. i wanted to talk about -- the doctor mentioned that one of the big issues was environmental in florida. one of the things that people are confused about is red tide. red tide is a natural phenomenon, and it's -- the blooms start when we get dust from africa that has iron in it. and that iron is what triggers the algae bloom in our water, so there is very few things that a politician can do. i don't know of anything a politician can do to stop it. they had a big expose on this on the news here in tampa about couple weeks ago. so voters are very misinformed

if they are voting on that as an environmental issue. >> in a way, you're quite right because the science has now taken over a bit, and it's less of the case that people are directly blaming politicians, but what has been true about the issue that's made it such a political one is the fact that the algae bloom, but more importantly the red tide is actually reached both coasts of florida, and it has lasted a lot longer. and it moves out and then it comes back in. but it is one that the visuals are so powerful and if you live in one of the areas where there's a lot of red tide and dead fish on the beaches, and you open your car door and roll down the window, you can smell it, so it is visuals, it's smell, it's all the personal kind of emotional contact that come in when you see the issue.

if you live in one of those areas or a tourist, you don't like it and you're thinking how can we fix it. i think what voters right now are really asking of the candidates is tell me how you propose to fix it, not finger point at which level of government or which candidate individually hasn't done enough to deal with the problem. solutions is what all floridians are really looking to hear people talk about with this really big environmental problem that's affecting our economy and definitely entering into some voters' equation as to who they are going to vote for. >> brian in massachusetts. hi, brian. >> caller: hi. i'd like to ask you a question. you folks down there had an amendment. and now you have the racing greyhound amendment 13. i wonder if the mayor of

tallahassee has made a stand on whether he supports it or not. how do you think that will affect some of the folks that work at the greyhound tracks down there? i understand a lot of people -- minority people work on those greyhound tracks. i would like your opinion generally on amendment 13 and my comments, any that you care to address. so thank you for listening to my question. >> thank you. amendment 13 dog racing is one of those amendments that really -- the ballot title and the summary of it doesn't address the bigger issues here. you've had a lot of money put in on both sides of this issue as well. but going back to the pregnant pig amendment that was passed some years ago by floridians, ironically there wasn't a pig in any of the ads that were asking people to vote for it. it was a little puppy. so, you know, people love dogs and whatever. but it is true that there are people in some of the

agricultural-related industries that are worried that this -- the way that it's actually written has the potential down the way of affecting their livelihood because it really is a very strong animal rights clause in the amendment which unless you read it, the full text which most people don't, they just read the ballot summary can be a bit misleading. the candidates haven't really talked much about this. most of the discussion has been about amendment 4 which is automatic restoration of felon voting rights much more than amendment 13, but amendment 13 is being watched by again hunters because they are fearful that ultimately animal rights will mean they won't be able to hunt, but more importantly some of the big agricultural industries in florida that worry about their reliance upon farm animals and so forth might be ultimately under attack.

>> harold is watching in palmdale, california. hi, harold. >> caller: good morning. i would like to say something about the red tide and the dying coral reefs and everything. i believe it's because they are dumping sewage into the ocean. it has ammonia in it. ammonia should be a big issue. it takes the oxygen out of the water. it's killing the fish. hello? >> we're listening, harold. >> it takes away the oxygen out of the water. it is killing the fish and the coral reefs. they also put it in our drinking water. and what is it doing to our bodies? is it killing the good bacteria in our liver and kidneys and stuff like that? these things need to be addressed. i believe ammonia is a serious issue. >> okay. harold in california. susan, could there be split voters in the state, vote for republican, vote for democrat and which races could you see that? >> there is a lot of potential for that because of this large

group of voters who are no party affiliation and listen more to the candidate than voting a straight party line. the two races that we're most focused on that you might have a different outcome on are interestingly the ones at the top of the ballot, the u.s. senate race and the florida governor's race, but there's also three other statewide contests which make up the florida cabinet. we elect our attorney general. we elect a commissioner of agriculture and the chief financial officer, so there could be any kind of combination there. democrats are hopeful that -- and republicans both are hopeful that their base votes party line, but that means then again, that it is up to these 28% who aren't registered as democrats or republicans, and which way they align. >> sean in lakeland florida. hi, sean. >> caller: how are you all doing

this morning? >> good morning. >> caller: i'm an independent in florida. i've always lived florida. i've always seen red tide. it got worse when scott was governor. how political people can affect red tide? they can do things like cut regulations on the big producers of fertilizer or the sugar companies down there and with the deregulation they just do what they want to do and then when the environment gets messed up, you have a boom of red tide that's larger than it normally would be. that's the issue. my other issue as an independent is florida's a closed primary state so i don't get to choose who gets to vote. i just get to decide how everybody puts who they think is up there, and i think that's kind of messed up along with these amendments. what if i was against offshore oil drilling but i wanted to be

able to vape in public? that's so dumb to me. why would you put those together? this is the kind of foolery that goes on in florida. >> susan? >> let's talk first of all about his concern that he can't vote in primaries. i think what you're most likely to see for the 2020 ballot is a citizen initiative that asks for the right to change our constitution to permit open primaries. poll after poll show strong support for this idea and both parties are, you know, looking at it, but they know that they need these people. they need to be engaged. i wouldn't be at all surprised if florida voters don't have a chance to vote on whether they want an open primary on the 2020 ballot. absolutely. and in terms of the environmental regulations and so forth and the amendments, they are there -- the ones he is talking about, the bundle ones that ask for you to vote on

something that has two or three parts and some of them don't even seem logical, you might like one of them but you don't like the others, you know, it could even be that there might be another petition drive to, you know, change the constitution to get rid of the constitutional revision commission. both of these issues that he's raised, the lack of the ability of a lot of independents to vote in a primary and secondly this bundling and things put there by constitutional revision commission, those have gotten enough attention that again, if someone were to start -- excuse me -- citizen initiative drives, it might be that we would see proposals to change our constitution on both fronts in 2020. >> all right. well if you are voting in florida, the polls open at 7:00 a.m. eastern time on election day to 7:00 p.m. voter registration closed october 9th. all 67 florida counties offered early voting from october 27th

to november 3rd. vote by mail allowed with ballots they are due by 7:00 p.m. election day. no same day registration. and a valid photo id with signature is required. susan, any indication that there are first time voters, and could they have an impact? >> absolutely there are first time voters, and it's been a very aggressive drive by both parties to register new people. democrats have heavily gone after the new youngest generation z, the 18 to 21-year-olds and even, you know, line people to sign up to register if they will turn 18 by election time and allowing them to vote. millions of dollars spent on that. republicans have also gone after young voters, but a lot of them have had very strong

registration drives in suburban areas of the state, new people moving in, getting them to change registration, explaining how florida election laws might differ from where they came from. this is a big responsibility. parties have to be aware people who come here from another state and become permanent residents and register may have a little bit of -- have experienced a little bit of a different way of doing things than the state that they came from. where that's most noticeable frankly is a lot of people calling supervisors of elections offices and asking why they couldn't vote, in a primary because they came here from states that have open primaries. >> we'll go to vero beach, florida. leah? >> caller: good morning. the one thing i wanted to talk about was -- and as i speak, i'm more conservative leaning. the majority of white people and i say white people but my descent is actually greek

cherokee indian but the majority of people who appear to be white are not racist. we are not a racist country. we are not a racist people. there are a few people that are still. but it is few and far between. and i'm so sick and tired of people trying to separate us. we are one race. we are the human race. we all live on the earth. and if you go to the doctor and you need that blood transfusion, you don't know whose blood you've gotten. you don't know what race it is. do you ask? do you ask what race it is? what race is my blood coming from? no, we don't. we are one race. and i'm so tired of politicians attempting to separate us, and the other thing that i'm really tired of is democrats trying to hide the fact that they are trying to bankrupt social security and medicare. you couldn't do it successfully if you tried harder than by putting people on medicare who do not belong on there, like, say, for example a newborn baby,

or say for example -- as a group to make sure this is a safe evening, an evening where we all have the opportunity to engage with an important issue, that's going to require us waiting for a little bit for our fellow members, subscribers and fans to get into this hall. i expect that could take as much as another 15 minutes, but we're going to try to get them in here as quickly as possible, and then we're going to have the regular great debate that we usually have every time. so thank you again for your patience. we'll be back momentarily. thanks, everybody.

♪ >> democracy project director for the bipartisan policy center. you wrote this roll call op-ed, vote, otherwise the hackers win. what was your message? >> well, a lot of people are concerned about security and the elections and whether things will go as well as they should. and i think my big message is first get out there and vote. there's no reason not to. it doesn't make it safer to stay at home.

secondly i think we have greater security, both growing security at the polls and greater than 2016 in a way that voters should feel pretty secure about that their vote is going to be counted as cast. there have been some changes since 2016. there's some big changes maybe over the last 15, 20 years that have also improved our system. while there's some things we can do in the future, we're doing pretty well, and i think voters should feel confident that their votes will count. >> what happened in 2016, and what makes you feel confident two years later? >> well, there certainly were problems in 2016 and people have the right to be worried. some of it deals with social media and opinion. and that's an important area but not really related to how your vote is going to count at the polls. so whether foreign influences coming through facebook or other sources is something we need to deal with, but it doesn't really affect your vote. at the polling place, there was a lot of talk about what had happened, but it was relatively minimal the actual effect. no votes were changed. no voting machines were

affected. you could feel pretty secure that your vote as it was cast on a machine, whatever it was was what it was. secondly, there was some influence regarding the voter registration systems, the databases we have, which have all the lists of all of us, but most of those were again like your systems at home, are companies where there are people trying to probe your systems, get in, like they do to banks and law firms and other places, only in a couple places did they actually get into a state's voter registration system and even there they didn't change anything. they saw some names. they may have copied some things, but there were really no changes. so while those are things we do need to work on, they did not affect votes, and i think voters, while they hear all this, should really realize that it is pretty secure to go out there and cast your ballot. >> you have some recommendations for people to restore their voter confidence. check your voter registration status. don't walk away if you have a problem at a polling place. and review your ballot. >> absolutely. we're getting close to the election, but you still can check your voter registration status, if you have a problem at

the polling place. there are options. so you can talk to your poll workers, and you can often get what they call a provisional ballot if there's an issue with your registration. if you are legitimately registered and there's just a problem, those problems can sometimes be resolved in the next few days after the election with that provisional ballot and then just check over your ballot because ultimately you the voter with the help of an election official there can do a fair amount to make sure that what you want to convey with your vote is actually what gets put into the system. >> and what has congress done in what has the government done since 2016? >> well, first of all, i think there have been a lot of changes over the last 15, 20 years, florida 2000 was a problem we all saw. looked under the hood and saw some issues. there have been incremental changes. in the last year, two things, there has been pretty good cooperation between the department of homeland security and state and local officials. that wasn't the case in the beginning. the way we run elections was at the state and local level, they

are not really crazy about washington parachuting in and saying we have all the answers. over time that relationship has developed. there's a lot of real information that dhs is giving to state and local election officials about threats of giving them updates, of giving them some technical capacity that some of those officials may not have. secondly, there's been a little bit of money put to the problem, 380 million dollars sounds like a lot of money. not the whole -- not going to fix our whole system, but ultimately it is a little bit of money that is going to states for various security purposes, whether it's hiring people in the tech sector, doing some updating of their machines, it is a start, and i think it's helpful that the voters should know that we're beginning to address some of these issues. >> what do you think could be some vulnerabilities on tuesday? where are there still some concern? >> well, again, i think we can work on a lot of things, but i would not be as concerned with the vote casting machinery. that is much harder to get at.

it's not on-line as some people think. it is not easily accessible from afar. the voter registration systems are still things i think we could use some protection of. it's been a good thing that we have opened those up. we have allowed most states, 40 states or so people can register on-line. but that comes with some security issues. while states i think are doing a pretty good job, we certainly could do better in that realm. going forward having more money for better systems and better machines as our systems are aging, that's one thing and two doing some protection of these voter registration systems and finally doing some audits after the fact. some states are doing that and doing some more sophisticated versions of that, but looking at the votes afterwards and making sure it all adds up, those are some things we can do. >> we want to hear from some viewers that have already voted, 202-748-8000. if you are voting on election day, what are your concerns?

202-748-8001. we welcome you to call in now and john is here to take your comments and your questions. last month hackers delivered a report to capitol hill showing that election machines in more than half of the u.s. states can be compromised. here's what they told congress, a voting tabulator used in 23 states is vulnerable to be remotely hacked. another machine used in 18 states was able to be hacked in only 2 minutes. hackers had the ability to activate the voting terminal to cast their ballot. what is your reaction? >> i do think there are issues that we should work on. our voting technology has aged. we bought a lot of these machines after the 2000 election where there was some money. i'm in favor of the upgrading of machines over time. and that will include new machines will likely have paper back-ups which many people call for and they will have better

security as well as better functionality. i think that's something we should do in the future. i do think it is different looking at the vulnerabilities in the lab versus in reality. and while there may be some vulnerabilities, and we should look at those, the idea that someone can get at these machines remotely very easily i think is difficult. they are not connected in a way broadly to the internet that people sometimes might think. also there are security provisions and tests that officials do before hand and after to ensure the integrity of these machines. yes, we could use some upgrades. yes, we should do that. that will take time and money. it is not going to happen overnight. i do think the machines are secure enough that voters should feel confident that their votes are going to count. >> jim in las vegas. you voted early, jim. what was it like? >> all the rest of it is just political theater anyway.

an obstruction, a distraction. >> all right. jim, are you going to tell us how you voted? what was your experience like? >> caller: democrat. everything obama says is not a lie. but the republicans are all lying. and you better check on your routers, buddy. >> jim in las vegas voted early. a lot of people voted early. are there any vulnerabilities with voting early or any concerns that you have with that system? >> first, i think we should recognize that this has been a long-term trend to voting before election day. i actually wrote a book about this back in 2006 when i said boy, it's increased a lot and it will increase more in the future, and it's just continued to go up. in our last election 40% of people voted either in person early or they voted by a mail ballot before the election. so it's a big trend. we're seeing at least anecdotal reports that it is up this time. midterm elections are usually a little lower than presidential.

i will note one other factor. we do some work on lines at polling places. it's a good thing to have voters have convenience of voting early, but it does tend to be that the lines are a little longer at the early voting places partly because people are willing to wait in those lines if they do that. i don't think there are any additional security concerns for people voting early at a polling place. the machinery is often very similar to those at the election day polling sites. but there's certainly a move much more in this direction and something i think people are taking advantage of. >> the new york times amid a call to get out and vote, millions already have. more americans are taking advantage of absentee and early voting this year with at least 27.5 million ballots already cast nationwide in four days of the campaign still to go. it's allowed in 17 states, in washington, d.c. james is next in florida.

james, good morning. >> caller: yes, good morning. yes, good morning. yeah, i've been watching all the debates in florida an cross the country -- and across the country. what i notice that not in every case but in most cases they all say the other party is crooked. i don't know whether to believe them all or not. but that seems to be the main issue, that there's sophisticated corruption. in florida they actually accused the one party of being totally corrupt. in the governor's race they accused the other party also that the fbi is looking for them and i'm waiting till the last day to watch these debates and see who is lying -- who they actually catch lying and what they don't. trump the other day at a rally he was talking to the farmers he said the estate tax, he said it will help all the farmers across the country. that's lie. it only kicks in at 5 or 6

billion. i'm looking at things like that, where you see that people are lying. in court, when you lie, your testimony is no good anymore. that's about it >> these allegations of corruption, are you concerned that it could impact your vote and others? >> yes, it could impact my vote. i'm tired of people -- i've been around since 1931. and i grew up in new york city. and everything was -- everybody was on the take and it was unbelievable. i went into business. i had the police shaking me down, the mafia shaking me down. everybody was taking my money, the city, the state, i worked hard all week running a business. everybody was taking money out of my pocket. >> how do the states protect against corruption? what sort of safeguards are in place? >> like anything in our system, it varies from state to state. we have a very decentralized system. but there are some things that are pretty common.

i mean, really we can go back quite a long way to where we decided we wanted a private ballot, and that was in the late 19th century. before that it was much more public and your vote could be either bought or seen. we do have protections just because you go into the polling place and you get a privacy booth and you have both parties watching you, and again sometimes people worry are the parties too involved? but they are there to watch each other, to watch -- make sure the system is not being taken over by someone. that continues even to the place of counting ballots. if you ever see ballots in a recount, you often cannot get into a room unless you have somebody from both parties watching to make sure that that process is going well. nothing is a perfect system, but there are a lot of protections that makes sure that your vote is not seen by just one party or the other. >> lisa in houston, texas. you voted early. what was it like? >> caller: yes, i did. i voted in houston, texas. we have two weeks of early voting. and i just voted last tuesday,

which is in the second week of it. and i did not have to stand in a particularly long line, but i had the luxury of going at 2:00. you know, which is not as much of a line. my sister, she's been trying to vote for the last three days because she doesn't have, you know, she has to go closer to after work time, and she has given up on three occasions already because she couldn't find parking. the lines were too long. she had to go to do, you know, another thing she still has, you know, children of the age where you have to go and pick them up. she said she's going to go today. today is our last day of early voting. i hope she can -- i guess it is going to be an hour-long line, i don't know. so that was -- the part that i think your guest is talking about, though, we have a 2002 e slate which is kind of like a very old school tablet. it doesn't have any

touch-screen. it doesn't have any -- uses like rotary dials and it is kind of -- it's sort of clumsy, but i don't have that much of a worry about those particular machines, and i have also worked in the election, in the 2016 primary, i was a worker, and we used like actual like books -- like giant books to look up people's names, and now, fortunately that has become electronic. i don't feel worried about that as much per se. but you know, when you have to wait so long to get in line for these e-slate machines, that is going to end up -- some people are not going to vote. >> couple things there, we are very interested in lines. we come out of a commission that was appointed a few years ago by

the president which was concerned with lines in the 2012 election. one point is that we really haven't known a lot about lines in the past. we've sort of anecdotally known about them and now we are starting to measure them in a pretty scientific way. most people don't wait in lines. lines on average are ten minutes long or so. but there is a small percentage of people who are waiting half an hour, hour or longer. interestingly early voting does broadly tend to have a higher average wait time, and that's partly because at the end of early voting, as the caller's relative is finding, that that's where the crush happens, two-week period, might find an early lull, but everybody's showing up at the end. it is still worth your while to go vote and wait in that line. there's also election day voting of course in every place and sometimes voting by mail depending on your state and your situation. but there are conveniences to early voting. it is not inherently going to be longer lines but it tends to be at the end where everybody wants to go at the same time, we see

longer lines. >> are any states considering another way to vote? and to do it early so that a working mom who has to go pick up her kids or any mom who has to go get their kids, etc., and they're deterred by no parking, long lines, etc., i mean what are states thinking about doing? >> there are all sorts of things going on. we are seeing 40% of people voting before election day. some states have ramped up their voting by mail. couple of states washington or oregon, 100% voting by mail. no polling places essentially. colorado is 95%. a number of the western states. but even in the early voting context, i'm not one who thinks we need, you know, 20, 30 days early voting, but the types of sites you have for early voting, those are very important. if you have no parking or it is a small site, it's not necessarily better or more convenient than an election day site. the hours that are there, and then the capacity that's there, the voter mentioned that they have the way you check in,

whether it's by a big roll of paper or these e-poll books which are a little more efficient and more able to get to the database more directly. that's an innovation that we're having. so i think there are a variety of methods, but, you know marketly it behooves you as a voter to try to go at some times -- but partly it behooves you as a voter to try to go at some times that aren't as busy. election day itself, the morning is very busy. there's a crush crush at the morning. if you have some opportunity to go later in the day or go earlier in the early voting period, those are two good times to vote. >> russell is next in hollywood, florida. hi, russell. >> caller: good morning. i'm a no party affiliation person. i've been registered since the 70s because i believe we need to have a bipartisan government to be fair to both sides. both democrats and republicans are accusing each other of corruption, lying, you need to wait as long as possible to try

to determine the truth. also take your time and read the entire ballot before you go to the polls on the day of election. therefore you can make hopefully an informed decision. thirdly, also, by having people mail in their ballots, increases -- >> -- why television audiences patiently waiting along with you for this debate to start. we are going to begin promptly at 7:30, in roughly 5 minutes. so if you are seated, please move towards your seat. i ask also just your forbearance that we're going to continue to seat the other ticketholders as the debate is going on. we think it is important to get this debate underway. if you can just allow people to move through the aisles to their seats, we're all going to be here for what promises to be a terrific debate. so back live in roughly five minutes. thank you. ♪

>> live tonight here, coverage from toronto. supposed to have started about 30 minutes ago. this is biannual munk debate.

tonight's debaters are former white house chief strategist steve bannon and atlantic senior editor david frum. talking about the rise of global populism during this biannual debate. our live coverage of course starting here shortly on c-span 2 as there are protesters blocking some of the people who are trying to watch the debate from coming into the auditorium because of the presence of the former white house chief strategist. expecting this to start, though, in just a few minutes. ♪