Florida Voters Rise From Torrential Flooding to Cast Their Vote

PALM BAY, Fla.—Officials deemed it a once in a 1,000 year event. In the span of 48 hours, communities across Brevard County and the rest of Florida’s east-central and southeast coastline were inundated with torrential rains measuring more than two feet in some places and triggering fatal flooding.

Yet, the very next day, voters were in their cars driving through the receding waters toward their assigned precinct, determined to cast their vote in the 2026 midterm elections.

Election officials in eight different counties worked fast to establish temporary polling places, which meant consolidating multiple precincts into one location.

In Brevard County, for instance, half of Melbourne voters in four of the city’s seven precincts were told to go to the New Shiloh Christian Center. Palm Bay voters in three of its four precincts were told to go to Franklin T. DeGroodt Memorial Library, which was in an interconnected complex next to the Palm Bay City Hall Council Chambers, which became the temporary host of the fourth precinct.

Both locations had lines out the door. Parking lots surrounding overfilled retention ponds were full of cars.

Among those making the effort to vote was Michelle Martin, who cast her first vote as a Florida resident after moving to Melbourne from Southern California.

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“It went totally fine for us,” she told The Epoch Times. “I just saw on social media that they had moved. I believe I got an email or a text message—I saw it in some official, you know, notification. And then I just double-checked before we left to make sure I was going to the right address. So because it’s our first time, I would have had to do that no matter what.”

She said the temporary polling place at New Shiloh Christian Center was actually closer to her house than her original location.

Several voters, like Palm Bay resident Noah Galloway, told The Epoch Times that they had to wait for the floodwaters to recede before they could get to the polls. Lamenting that he was unable to participate in the county’s early voting window, he said that once he was able to reach the Library, he waited 45–50 minutes to cast his vote.

Still, the 21-year-old left the polls with a sense of accomplishment that despite a busy week, a flood, and a long wait, he was able to get his vote counted.

A general consensus taken among the voters and campaign volunteers on-site from both political parties appeared to suggest general approval of how the county handled the last-minute change. The new locations were easy to find, and the process in both locations was very organized.

“The poll workers were fantastic,” Martin said. “Every one of them was amazing, happy, and smiling, and happy to do their job. So that was really nice.”

However, there was also concern that the floodwaters would not release voters in time.

As of 6:20 p.m. on Nov. 3, Brevard County already reported 59.63 percent participation among registered voters, boasting an unofficial count of 266,715 out of 447,257 active eligible voters.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections for an estimate on how many voters, if any, would be left out of this election due to the flooding.