Gov. Ron DeSantis: Florida Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ to Vote in November

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) weighed in on the president’s recent musings on delaying the general election by affirming Thursday that Florida will be “ready to go” to vote in November.

When asked about President Trump’s remarks, the Florida governor pointed out planning has been going into the upcoming election and emphasized he believes Florida will be “ready to go.”

“All of the supervisors of elections have been planning for this for a time, the Secretary of State’s been planning for this for a long time,” DeSantis said on Thursday. “I think Florida will be ready to go.”

DeSantis also addressed vote-by-mail in Florida and clarified the state does not embrace universal mail-in voting. An individual can request to vote by mail from the local supervisors of elections, but ballots are not mailed to every address en masse.

“I would not support mass mailing everyone a ballot,” DeSantis clarified. “To have ballots flying out there willy-nilly would be bad.”

President Trump made the distinction between mass-mail voting and absentee voting in his Thursday tweet, which reignited the ongoing debate.

“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” the president said.

“It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” he asked:

With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020

Several Florida lawmakers hold the same view as DeSantis, signaling the election in November will proceed as planned.

“Since 1845, we’ve had an election on the first Tuesday after Nov. 1 and we’re going to have one again this year,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) concurred, with Diaz-Balart emphasizing that he “vehemently” opposes the prospect of delaying the election.

Trump’s tweet comes as Democrats continue in their push for mass-mail voting, which as Republicans point out and history shows, invites error and is fraught with fraud and the potential for abuse.