Florida’s governor again gave election officials some flex following Hurricane Milton. He announced a new executive order Thursday morning that eased voting rules in impacted counties.
“We signed an executive order to make sure that people would be able to vote in the upcoming November election,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida). “Allowing the supervisors of elections to make reasonable, modest but reasonable, accommodations if they have had damage to any of their voting sites because of the storm, and to be able to ensure that folks have an ability and a place to be able to cast their ballot.”
The new order is an expansion of the old one drafted following impacts from Helene. It eases election rules for officials in 11 more counties on top of the 13 original.
The changes are a near copy-paste. Here are some highlights:
- Flexibility on noticing early voting spots
- Eased poll worker training timetables
- Allowing temporary mailing locations for ballots
- And the ability to relocate or consolidate polling places
It comes after the state election supervisors association sent this letter to the DeSantis administration, earlier in the week, asking for help. They got pretty much what they wanted and chairs of both major parties were optimistic the hurricanes wouldn’t hurt turnout.
“In 2018 you have Bay County that was hit before, 2022 Fort Myers was hit pretty hard, and those are Republican areas,” said Evan Power, Florida GOP Chair. “But we continue to work the ground and turn out every Republican voter.”
State
Is Florida ready for Election Day after back-to-back major hurricanes?
Florida Dems felt the storm could strengthen their numbers.
“People you know are getting through it,” said Nikki Fried, Florida Democrats Chair. “Electricity is back on. People are getting back into their homes and even more so this time, I think it's actually going to have the opposite effect, meaning more people, because they're seeing again, Republicans denying climate is changing.”
The governor’s executive orders aren’t permanent. They’re just for the impacted counties this election cycle. Both are set to expire on Nov. 6 of this year.
