Voters in Florida are going to the polls today to decide one of the important crucial battles of the US midterms.
Andrew Gillum, the Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, is running for governor against Republican Ron DeSantis and hopes to become the first African-American to win the office in the Sunshine State.
Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, meanwhile is fending off a challenge to his seat from Florida Governor Rick Scott, who is term limited in his current job.
Follow the latest updates in the US midterm race in the live blog below.
Here is the latest on the Florida Governor race:
The Florida election has been one of the closest watched contests of the midterms, and candidates there attracted support from top American politicians including President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden, and former President Barack Obama.
We were on the ground in Orlando just a couple of weeks ago where Mr Biden roused a crowd with a call to arms and a warning about what these elections mean for the nation:
Donna Shalala was the one to have taken that seat.
A common theme from the day across the US is that voters are showing up en masse — and in some cases the turnout may end up breaking records for a midterm election.
Florida is no exception, it seems, with several counties across the country seeing voter turnout beating out the levels seen in the 2014 midterms, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
There are a couple of House races results in Florida, the Democrats have picked up the seat for the 27th district.
Polls are now closed in all of Florida.
While we were down in Florida, we caught up with Florida House candidate Anna Eskimani — a progressive candidate who is hoping to be elected to a seat that carries with it very little glory.
There are actually more than 7,000 state elected offices, and they have a huge impact on Americans' lives.
Take a look at our coverage of that broader issue, and Ms Eskimani's story:
In about 10 minutes, the remaining polling locations will be closing in the Florida panhandle, where time zone differences keep polls open an hour longer than the rest of the state.
So far, Democrats in the rest of the state are still performing pretty well. It is still early, however, and votes are still being tallied across much of the sunshine state.
Mr Gillum's election night party venue is being evacuated because of storming.
Some Democrats running for re-election to the US House in competitive districts are starting to see some good news.
Representatives Darren Soto and Stephanie Murphy have both been re-elected to their House seats, according to the Associated Press.
This is no surprise, but the largest metropolitan areas in Florida are voting heavily for Democrats.
That includes results in Miami-Dade county, and in Broward County, where voters are pushing the needle towards the Democrats.
Early results are giving a slight lead to the Democrat at the top of the ticket in Florida.
With just 4 per cent of precincts reporting, Mr Gillum leads Mr DeSantis with 40 per cent of the vote to 48.8 per cent.
Mr GIllum would be the first Democratic governor of the state since 1994 — and the first African American governor in the state's history.
Mr GIllum would be the first Democratic governor of the state since 1994 — and the first African American governor in the state's history.
On the Senate side, Mr Nelson is leading with 51.3 per cent of the vote to Mr Scott's 48.7 per cent. Nine per cent of precincts are reporting.
While we're waiting for the votes to be tallied in Florida, it is worth noting that the state saw some of the biggest spending of any Senate race in US history.
Signs were everywhere pushing Floridians to vote for candidates up and down the ballot when we were down in the state — take a look at our coverage of the money spent down there, where Mr Scott spent a small fortune of his own money to try and become a US senator.
On the campaign trail where one of the most expensive Senate elections in US history has made politics unavoidable
The IndependentThe Senate race in Florida has reached near-record-breaking levels with $181 million in spending, according an analysis of government disclosures by the Centre for Responsive PoliticsBeyond the high profile battles for the governor's mansion and Senate seat, voters in Florida were asked to weigh in on many other issues, including on Amendment 4 — a measure that would give the vote back to over 1.5 million felons in the state.
Florida is one of just a few states in the US where felons do not have a clear systematic way to get the right to vote back after serving their sentences.
Check out our coverage, from Miami, of the issue
Midterms 2018: Will rehabilitated Florida felons finally get to vote?
The IndependentAnalysis: An estimated 1.6 million Floridians are unable to vote because of past felony convictions; but as Clark Mindock explains in Miami, a new initiative could mean they go to the polls in 2020
Polls are now closed across most of Florida. The race is in the early days at the moment, with just 1 per cent of the precincts reporting.
Reports suggest that in at least one precinct in Broward County, voters encountered locked gates to get to their polling places.
WLRN in South Florida reports that private security officers told one woman "too bad" when she voiced concern that her polling place had been moved inside of a gated community, and that voters needed to provide identification to get inside and to the polls.
"I wouldn't show them ID and they held me at the gate and blamed me for holding the line," another voter, Carlos J Lugo, tweeted.
Polls in most of Florida are about to close, at 7pm ET. While that will cover the vast majority of the state — including major metropolitan areas like Miami and Orlando — polls will stay open for another hour in the westernmost portion of the state, known as the panhandle.
↵
As polls take the last voters in, here's a report on gun control in Florida from reporter Clark Mindock:
Florida finds itself host to one of the most heated and ill-tempered of all the midterm election races.
Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, 39, is running for governor against Ron DeSantis and hopes to become the first African-American to win the office in the Sunshine State.
Here’s our introduction to one of the defining contests of the autumn.
A few hours ago Donald Trump posted a message encouraging people in Florida to go out and vote.
In the message he throws his weight behind Republican Congress candidate Michael Waltz.
