MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis was busy watching a launch Thursday on Florida’s coast and missed President Donald Trump’s tweet calling to delay the 2020 election but when asked about a possible delay the governor said “Florida will be good to go.”
Trump tweeted Thursday: “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???”
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The date of the presidential election — the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every fourth year — is enshrined in federal law and would require an act of Congress to change, including agreement from the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The Constitution makes no provisions for a delay in the end of Trump’s term — noon on Jan. 20, 2021.
DeSantis met with aerospace leaders in Merritt Island for a ceremonial bill signing and then answered questions from reporters. News 6 asked if he thinks, like the president, that the election should be delayed.
“So he asked for the election to be delayed?” DeSantis said in response.
When told yes he continued on responding, “I don’t think in Florida, I mean, I think that, you know, obviously I think voter fraud is an issue ... I’ve talked to some of the U.S. attorneys who are on top of that, and they’re not going to stand for it ... so we’re gonna police that but I think Florida will be good to go.”
DeSantis also said he thinks there is some confusion over mass mailing ballots.
“There’s some people that say you should just mass mail ballots to every address regardless of whether they requested or anything. And I do think that that creates some problems in terms of potential for fraud. That’s not what we do in Florida,” DeSantis said. “Florida has vote by mail, you can request the mail-in ballot. It is sent to you. There’s verification and it’s a process that I think works.”
In March, when the coronavirus pandemic first arrived in Florida the governor was adamant that the primaries would not be delayed by the virus.
“We’re definitely voting, they voted during the civil war, we’re voting,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.