A.G. Gancarski
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.
9 comments
Michael K
October 6, 2024 at 6:23 pm
Florida is one of several states that has made it easier to buy a gun than to vote. And voter registration drives – like the ones that the League of Women Voters held for decades – are, in practical terms, illegal in Florida because few organizations can risk the enormous penalties and litigation expenses. and restrictions. These new laws were targeted especially to discourage young people and people in minority communities from registering to vote, and voting.
Billy Rotberg
October 7, 2024 at 1:29 pm
No FBI background check required to vote. No 5 day waiting period either. Just another Lie from Michael K
K-Flan
October 9, 2024 at 8:35 pm
Amen Brother Billy, Michael K is a delusional brainwashed Soyboy.
A day without Libturds
October 7, 2024 at 1:57 pm
You libturds offer nothing so that’s why you always talk shit about everyone else.
Bobblehead Kammy
October 6, 2024 at 6:47 pm
Micarsel-Powell will get crushed. I just saw a commercial where she says Scott will raise taxes, take your social security. She is full of crap and desperate at this juncture.
Billy Rotberg
October 7, 2024 at 1:34 pm
Florida is not in play.
MHDuuuval
October 6, 2024 at 9:38 pm
If given the opportunity, Trick will vote to give millionaires and corporations a second Trump budget-busting tax break like those of 2017.
Trick won’t be able to sunset Social Security and Medicare as well as other entitlements as he has proposed because his own party won’t go along.
What MAGAs will do is continue to drag their feet on putting Social Security and Medicare on sounder footing, anticipating financial crises in the near term that they can leverage to cut both programs.(This is the flip side to giving another huge tax break to those who don’t need it — “starving the entitlements beast”.)
Billy Rotberg
October 7, 2024 at 1:33 pm
Biden voted to tax Social Security benefits. YOU are the ones who put it on weak footing. Get your facts straight for once.
A day without Libturds
October 7, 2024 at 2:02 pm
Debbie gets funded by warlords in the Ukraine. Not buying your pathetic blue cultist propaganda.
Comments are closed.