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….