Finally, the third DeSantis story ran in CBS yesterday under the headline, “
DeSantis issues executive order authorizing election changes to Helene-impacted Florida counties.”
Yesterday, Florida Governor DeSantis issued an executive order authorizing election changes in ten counties affected by Hurricane Helene.
For obvious reasons, county election supervisors are normally prohibited by state law from changing voting locations right before an election. This commonsense rule prevents voter confusion over where they expect to vote, showing up to the wrong place, and precludes putting the ballot box down in a locked basement.
But if the polling place is suddenly submerged under three feet of water, supervisors require a little flexibility. While some people might crawl over broken glass to cast their ballots, other less adventurous voters prefer not having
to swim.
The order contained other sensible changes, like letting residents who’ve evacuated vote by mail even if they didn’t request a mail-in ballot by the long-expired deadline, or if they are temporarily living with in-laws in Ohio.
In his presser, DeSantis said his order wouldn’t affect election integrity. "None of those rules are being lifted. But if there's a polling place that's been destroyed, you have an ability to set up a different site, provide proper notice and follow all the rest of state law, but this will ensure that residents that were impacted by this storm and displaced, maybe, still have the ability to vote in November's election," he told reporters.
Careful readers will recall that over the weekend, I suggested affected states start considering how to help displaced citizens vote next month. As far as I know, Florida is the first to act.
It occurs to us that things would be a lot different if the federal government worked as hard and efficiently as Ron DeSantis and his Florida team. Once again, Governor DeSantis —America’s Governor— is leading the country.
Once again, Florida's Governor DeSantis proves his salt in perfect trifecta of response to multiple catastrophes; the pros and cons of FEMA activation; good news for supply chain; conspiracies; more.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
