Debbie Mucarsel-Powell invokes Helene, Milton in calling for more time to register to vote

What if people intend to register to vote, but hurricanes get in the way?

That’s the concern of Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who is running against Rick Scott for the Senate.

In a statement Sunday, the Democrat from South Florida said the Oct. 7 deadline should be pushed back so that people can register unclouded by a storm track.

“Floridians have only just begun to start rebuilding and recovering from the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene, but a new storm is already forecast to impact our state this week. Public safety has to be the priority, and Floridians shouldn’t have to choose between preparing for another storm and making sure their voice will be heard this November,” said Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

“Extreme weather impacts the homes we live in, our commutes to work and school, and our ability to pay everyday costs under the affordability crisis in our state. This widespread devastation severely limits Florida voters’ ability to register for the upcoming General Election by the current Oct. 7 deadline – whether online, in-person, or by mail. I am calling on Florida officials to extend the voter registration deadline to ensure we allow Floridians to exercise their rights at the ballot box.”

We’ve contacted Gov. Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State Cord Byrd for comment.

In the wake of Helene, voters in Charlotte, Citrus, Dixie, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, and Taylor Counties already have some allowances as they vote.

Election Supervisors can change early voting sites. Restrictions on mail-in ballot requests are also relaxed, and ballots can be sent to addresses other than displaced voters’ home addresses.

According to DeSantis, the goal is to “ensure that residents who were impacted by the storm and displaced, maybe still have the ability to vote.”

Coincidentally, the Governor has expressed concern about people not being able to vote because of Helene in Georgia and North Carolina, fearing that storm impact could make it to where reliable Republicans don’t get a chance to vote in two of the closest elections on the electoral map.

“If you look at Georgia and North Carolina, the path that this took is probably, I would say 2 to 1 Republicans in the path of that,” DeSantis said on Friday’s episode of The Dana Show.

The Governor wants those states, which have 16 electoral votes each, to ensure people displaced by the storm can vote as they can in Florida, “because if not, I think you could see a noticeable drop off in the turn” if absentee ballots can’t be sent out to places, particularly in the North Carolina mountains where roads, other infrastructure, and entire communities were destroyed.

Meanwhile, forces apparently sympathetic to Mucarsel-Powell are invoking the storm as part of a text campaign appeal to voters, as seen here. Her campaign denies involvement though.