©2024 The News Service of Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he intends to respond “relatively soon” to a request by elections officials to make some changes in 10 counties that sustained heavy damage in Hurricane Helene.
“I think we will be doing something. The question is what?” DeSantis said during an appearance in Madeira Beach. “I’ve got to look at it, I’ve got to vet it, but we’re going to basically continue to be consistent with what we’ve done in past practices.”
Florida Supervisors of Elections Executive Director David Ramba on Tuesday asked Secretary of State Cord Byrd for changes in counties where election infrastructure has been damaged.
The counties are Charlotte, Citrus, Dixie, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota and Taylor.
“Hurricane Helene has displaced countless voters and poll workers from their homes in a number of impacted counties,” Ramba wrote.
Elections officials, in part, are seeking flexibility in early voting locations and dates, relocation of polling places and use of mobile units where fixed locations are unavailable.
Local elections officials were allowed to consolidate polling places after Hurricane Ian hit Southwest Florida in September 2023 and Hurricane Michael hit Northwest Florida in October 2018.
The state also allowed eight counties that sustained damage in Michael to set up temporary polling places and early voting sites and to send ballots to other counties for tabulation.
Some counties, such as Bay, set up “mega” locations that were available to all voters regardless of their addresses for early voting and Election Day.
After Hurricane Ian, Charlotte, Lee and Sarasota counties were allowed to extend the early-voting period and designate additional early-voting locations.
Elections supervisors in the counties were also allowed to relocate and consolidate polling places and designate new locations for vote-by-mail drop boxes.
To ensure polling places were staffed, state employees were encouraged to work at sites.
