With early voting open in far more than half of Florida’s counties as of Monday, 15 days before Election Day, Governor Ron DeSantis is urging supporters to vote earlier rather than later, despite pleas from Donald Trump as well as other Republicans to wait until November 8.
Since Trump began trumpeting false claims of a stolen 2020 election, DeSantis has made election integrity a priority, and he has supported a number of initiatives to that end, such as the creation of an election police force that made controversial fraud arrests in August.
However, the governor has repeatedly stated that Florida voters should have confidence in their own elections, including the ability to vote early or by mail, both of which Trump has falsely accused of allowing fraud.
DeSantis disagreed with Trump on this matter after returning to the campaign trail in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. On Oct. 9, the former president told a Nevada rally that voting sooner would make it simpler for Democrats to cheat. He did not present any evidence.
However, DeSantis’ message is that any form of casting a vote will suffice. He sometimes keeps a tally at campaign events. “How many of you you are going to vote by mail?” he inquires. “How about early in person?” he asks. When he inquires about “Election Day,” the silence is broken by cheers.
DeSantis pushed back on that preference on Sunday in Bal Harbour, telling a packed Jewish community center to vote as soon as possible to prevent a “mulligan” in two weeks.
“You can’t really take a mulligan if you wait until Election Day and get a flat tire,” DeSantis said at the time. “However if you cast a ballot early, you do it, and you’re done. If something goes wrong when you’re on your way], you’ll have another chance.”
“We can’t afford to be passive about this,” he added later.
Democrats, including DeSantis, have advocated for early voting. “I urge you not to sit tight until Election Day,” Val Demings, Rubio’s Senate opponent, wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Florida, a longstanding swing state, will host several key races this midterm season, with Republicans upbeat about their chances given voters’ criticism of President Joe Biden as well as concerns about the economy and inflation.
According to the FiveThirtyEight polling average, DeSantis leads Democratic opponent Charlie Crist by about 8 points. He as well as Crist, a former Florida governor, will start debating Monday in South Florida during their lone debate.
Despite the fact that early in-person voting only started a few days ago, approximately 1.2 million Floridians already have mailed in their ballots, according to state data.
According to Michael McDonald, a political science professor as well as voter turnout researcher at the University of Florida, turnout for this midterm election is on par with 2018, which had the highest numbers of any midterm election since 1914.
According to state Divisions of Elections, registered Democrats have the advantage in mail voting so far, casting nearly 50,000 more votes than their Republican counterparts. Republicans, on the other hand, have requested over 400,000 fewer mail ballots and are returning them at a higher rate.
In Florida, anyone who requested a mail ballot in 2020 received one automatically in 2022.
Because of the high Democrat mail participation rate during the previous presidential cycle, McDonald believes the disparity in requests is due to carryover from 2020 rather than Democratic enthusiasm for the voting method in 2022.
Historically, Democrats outnumber Republicans in early in-person casting a vote in Florida, while Republicans outnumber Democrats on Election Day.
However, in 2020, as Democrats favored mail ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Republicans managed to lead in early in-person voting. McDonald explained.
“Republicans in the Florida state don not see as much of a risk from allowing and encouraging those different forms of voting because they know their campaigns are able to turn their supporters,” McDonald said.
“DeSantis’ campaign has enormous financial resources. So they’ve a machine that can mobilize voters “He continued.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who is running for reelection, held a rally on Monday to promote early in-person voting. He has expressed some of Trump’s reservations about alternative early voting methods.
Rubio stated during a debate with Demings last week that “there’s immense risk involved in drop boxes” because someone could compromise them.
Republicans in other states have ridiculed early voting periods while encouraging voters to vote “however they want,” as Arizona gubernatorial contender Kari Lake put it earlier this month.
“If you’ve a mail-in ballot, I believe you should use it.” “I want people to vote,” Lake explained. Separately, she recently told ABC News that she disliked the fact that “Election Day” had already become “Election Season.”
Demings, for her part, has spent the previous two days campaigning from the Panhandle to the Keys.
Although Democrats hold a significant lead in mail-ballot requests, several of those votes are still outstanding.
“The challenge is going to be for the Democrats to really motivate their voters. And if they can, it will become visible in the statistics”, McDonald stated.
