PUNTA GORDA, Fla.—Voters in three Southwest Florida counties that were devastated by Hurricane Ian will have more options to cast their ballots on Nov. 8 under an emergency order signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Oct. 13.
Charlotte, Lee, and Sarasota counties will see changes as the result of residents being displaced because their homes were destroyed in the Category 4 hurricane that made landfall on Sept. 28.
The Supervisors of Elections in Charlotte, Lee, and Sarasota counties requested the changes and Florida’s Secretary of State Cord Byrd agreed.
The executive order will extend early voting and designate additional poll locations.
Voters were able to cast their early ballots from Oct. 29 through Nov. 5, but those dates have been widened to Oct. 24 and Nov. 6.
Supervisors of Elections in those three counties can relocate and consolidate polling places and designate new locations for vote-by-mail drop boxes or what the state calls “secure ballot intake stations.”
In addition, voters who are registered in the three counties will be allowed to call in requests for vote-by-mail ballots that can be sent to locations that are not the addresses listed in a state voter-registration system.
The governor’s order also ensures that enough poll workers will be available in those counties.
DeSantis’s office said supervisors haven’t lost any voting machines and that equipment and ballots have remained secure. However, it added the storm did damage some polling places and early voting sites, along with displacing a number of poll workers.
In 2018 after Hurricane Michael caused massive damage to the Panhandle the state made similar changes for eight Florida counties.
In a prepared statement a group, All Voting is Local Florida asked for changes to be extended to other counties affected by Hurricane Ian.
“Voters in any storm-affected county in Florida, not just the three where local elections officials asked for help, deserve extended time and resources to adequately cast their ballots,” Brad Ashwell, the group’s state director, said in a prepared statement.
“The state must consider the needs of voters across the state, not just the needs of supervisors of elections in a few counties.”
The political makeup of the three counties of 1.01 million registered, 44 percent were registered Republicans and 26 percent were registered Democrats, according to state Division of Election numbers.
Vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Christian Ziegler said that party preference did not play a part in the decision to make the changes.
“We’re trying to get people, you know, back to normal as quickly as possible,” Ziegler told the Epoch Times. “That’s making sure electricity is on, the internet’s on, the water is on, and also making sure that they have the ability to vote.”
Ziegler also said that election integrity is paramount, but people having access to exercise their right to vote is more important.
“You know, our main concern is when you have a natural disaster like this, whether it’s in the Panhandle or down in Miami ... is to make sure that citizens have the ability and the access to vote,” he said.
Hurricane Ian displaced thousands of Florida residents as homes were “totally wiped away with wind and storm surge,” he said. As people are “focused on getting their lives back in order,” an important election looms ahead of which people want to exercise their right to vote.
“There have to be rules in place, which are obviously in place to protect our elections, but also at times like this, you do have to work to ensure that citizens have full access,” he continued.
Ziegler gave credit to the governor for having the foresight to put forth initiatives that “made sense” such as requesting a ballot by phone and extending early voting.
“To be able to request your ballot by phone and send it to a different address rather than just the address you have on file … that makes sense,” he said. “Because if homes are impacted, and you can’t get mail there, you should be able to ship it through another address.”
“And then I know extending early voting a little bit,” he said. “That makes sense as well so people can get to the early voting sites.”
All in all, Ziegler said the governor was “opening up additional avenues to make sure people have the ability to securely, and easily vote,” and “political ramifications were not discussed.”
“We have Floridians that were impacted and that, you know, we need to make sure that their vote can be counted,” Ziegler said of the new changes. “And that’s it, period, end of story.”
The Epoch Times attempted to contact the state Democratic Party but did not respond by press time.
