TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Just hours after President Donald Trump was declared the winner of Florida in Tuesday's election, Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the state's election process on Wednesday, saying other states that are still counting ballots should've followed Florida's lead.
"People are actually looking at Florida and asking the question, why can't these states be more like Florida?" DeSantis said during a short news conference in Tallahassee.
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The governor said Florida earned the stigma of having a poor elections system following the infamous recount of the 2000 presidential election, as well as controversial recounts in 2018 in South Florida counties.
Those recounts led to the removal of the supervisors of elections in Palm Beach and Broward counties, which DeSantis said made a key difference in Tuesday's election.
"Those two counties did a great job, and I commend both supervisors in those counties for all their hard work," DeSantis said.
In addition, the governor said Florida conducted a review of the state's elections infrastructure to weed out cyber threats and also staffed additional personnel for this year's election to help process the state's roughly 11 million ballots.
"The way Florida did it, I think, inspires confidence. I think that's how elections should be run," DeSantis said. "We're now being looked at as the state that did it right, and the state that these other states should emulate."
The governor went onto say that several states that are still counting ballots as of Wednesday, and may continue doing so for days, should've followed Florida's revamped system.
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Calling it a "historic victory," DeSantis on Wednesday praised President Donald Trump for his victory in Florida, saying large events in cities like Miami helped give him an advantage over Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
"I also think the fact that he has really helped us with a lot of Florida issues, I think helped him," DeSantis said. "For whatever we needed, hurricane relief, helping our military bases, our space infrastructure and space industries, Everglades funding. You name it, president's been there."
In winning Florida, Trump picked up the battleground state's coveted and critical 29 electoral votes.
