TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Thursday expanding voting access for midterm elections in three counties where Hurricane Ian Polling sites were destroyed and thousands displaced.
The move follows requests from Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota counties and voting rights groups as Florida begins make a massive recovery From Category 4 hurricane which hit on September 28 and flattened parts of the southwest of the state.
count Increases the number of early voting days in three counties and authorizes election observers to designate additional early voting locations, a move that allows voters to vote at any polling place in their registered county from October 24 until election day, November 8. Allow ballots to be cast at the venue. Election observers can also move or consolidate polling places if necessary.
It also waives training requirements for poll workers and suspends a signature requirement for voters requesting to mail ballots to an address that is different from the one on file of an election official.
Election supervisor Tommy Doyle in Lee County praised the decision, which was The epicenter of Ian’s outbreak along the Gulf Coast.
“The executive order is important because it allows us to move forward with our plans to make voting as accessible as possible for Lee County voters,” Doyle said Thursday.
Secretary of State Cord Byrd, a Republican appointee to the governor, said state officials are working to ensure that elections are “administered as efficiently and safely as possible across the state and in the counties receiving the most losses.” Go.”
The changes are similar to policies permitted by former Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, after Hurricane Michael in 2018.
DeSantis Questions have been faced over what steps he will take to ensure access to voting in the heavily damaged southwest part of the state, which has turned conservative in recent elections. Republican Governor, who is up for re-electionThe U.S. has made stringent election laws a top priority over the past two years, as he and others in the GOP have reacted to former President Donald Trump’s response. baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
This week, a coalition of advocacy organizations sent a letter to state election officials asking for an extension of the state’s voter registration deadline, which expires on Tuesday, as well as a greater number of early voting days. Early voting hours were extended with and in the affected counties. Demand.
“It’s really about overcoming obstacles when people are in a situation of incredible hardship and displacement,” said Amy Keith of Common Cause Florida. “Just to make it so they can do their civic duty, they can go out and exercise their right to vote.”
Separately, Doyle called for a similar change, telling state election officials that the storm devastated the county and its neighbors.
“In Lee County, there remain few viable Election Day polling places after the storm. Many established polling places no longer exist. Securing enough polling personnel to staff the seventy-seven polling places would be problematic. Hurricane Ian ravaged Lee County.” Countless voters and polling personnel have been displaced from their homes,” he wrote in a letter to the state on October 2.
Hurricane Ian hit Lee County with 155 mph (250 kph) winds, which destroyed coastal communities and areas inundated with debris and debris. Ian was the third deadliest hurricane to hit the US mainland this century, and Lee County has reported nearly half of the state’s more than 100 fatalities.
A Lee County spokesman said election officials there have sent out about 170,000 vote-by-mail ballots and will continue to send ballots daily until the October 29 request deadline. He said the county would use its most experienced election workers at its polling places.
During a news conference last week, DeSantis said he wanted to keep the election “as humanely as possible” and said there may be a need to build housing for a county as badly damaged as Lee, as well as possibly Charlotte. County as well. Answer.
Southwest Florida is dependent on Republicans with the counties of Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota winning victories for DeSantis and Trump in their last general elections. Lee County voted for Trump in 2020 by almost 20 percentage points President Joe Biden, DeSantis is set to win re-election this year over Democrat Charlie Crist.
DeSantis and the Republican-controlled legislature have tightened various voting rules in Florida over the past two years. a law Signed by the governor in 2021, prohibits people who would help others to leave a mail ballot from holding more than two mail ballots other than their own, unless they are related to immediate family members. this year Florida increased the penalty for so-called “ballot harvesting” to a felony.