National Voter Registration Day was September 19th, and I read article after article describing how Taylor Swift’s message to fans encouraging them to register to vote was linked to a spike in the number of people who registered to vote. It’s SO important to register to vote, but it’s not just because you can vote in the U.S. presidential election– registering to vote also allows you to participate in state elections to vote for members of your state legislature. Many people don’t talk about the Florida Legislature unless there’s discussion of major controversial issues, such as abortion or education, which have been critical topics in recent legislative sessions. It’s important to talk about the different ways we can stay informed about the Florida Legislature so that way, we can have all the information we need to make decisions that are right for us on Election Day.
- Florida channel
-
The Florida Channel provides live-streams of the work that the Florida legislators are doing, from committee meetings to county legislative delegation meetings. You can also watch the Board of Governors and Board of Trustees meetings as well, which are super interesting since they impact Florida public universities. There are videos posted in the video library after events and meetings are livestreamed, allowing you to watch what happened. Also, there are videos, titled “TFC News Brief” with the published date included in the title, that provide detailed updates on current Florida government headlines, allowing you to stay updated on news regarding the Florida government in general. While watching committee meetings might not sound like the most exciting activity, you can watch them after they’re live-streamed at an increased speed, and you can pick specific committees to watch that showcase the work legislators are doing in an area you’re interested in, like education.
- THE FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVEs AND FLORIDA SENATE WEBSITES
-
Chances are, you probably don’t know who your state representatives and state senators are. Since we typically focus on the federal government, we don’t think about how the state of Florida is split into districts and we have to know which district we’re in to then know who our state representatives and state senators are.
Yeah, it’s a lot.
You can use the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate websites to determine which members of the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate represent your district, and you’ll be able to then follow what they’re doing in Tallahassee during the legislative session. You can also find out what committees they’re on, the leadership positions they have in these committees, the calendars for each legislative chamber, the bills that have been filed, and other information using these websites. If you check either of these websites right now, you can look into bills that have been filed for this upcoming 2024 legislative session.
Also, once we know who our state representatives and state senators are, we can follow them on their social media accounts— which is just an additional, easier way to stay informed in order to see what they’re doing and promoting.
- reading popular bills
-
Honestly, sometimes we don’t have time to watch a bunch of committee meetings or go through all the legislation that a specific member in the Florida House of Representatives or Florida Senate is proposing. I think, at least, it’s important for us to take the time to actually read the bills that are attracting the most attention during a legislative session in order to develop our own opinions on the matter. There are many news sites that simply provide details on the bills and there are no partisan angles; however, there are also tons of news sites that do write with a slant towards different political views. By taking the time to read the bills that are being spoken about, we can form our own opinions, and understand what issues are being perceived as most pressing by Florida legislators during that legislative session.
One website, other than the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate websites, that is easy to use is Legiscan. If you go to the bill tracking section of the website, it provides details on bills that have been filed in a specific session (including this upcoming legislative session), and the bills that passed and failed in past sessions. You can also search for specific bills that are being talked about and written about in articles to read the bill itself. I do this whenever I can, and the bills are usually only a couple of pages long. This way, we can develop our own opinions on topics rather than solely reading articles that are slanted toward specific political parties’ interests.
Overall, whether you’re a political science major like me, a woman in STEM, Arts & Humanities, or anything in between, Florida politics affects us all. It’s important that we stay informed so that we can form our own opinions and pave our own path when voting!
