DeSantis signs executive order to ease voting rules in Florida counties impacted by Hurricane Ian

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday signed an executive order expanding early voting and voting by mail for the counties most heavily impacted by Hurricane Ian.

Executive Order 22-234, which applies to Florida’s Charlotte, Lee and Sarasota counties, extends the early voting period from as early as Oct. 24 through Election Day, Nov. 8. It also increases the number of early voting locations.

Voters in the three counties specified will be additionally allowed to request their vote-by-mail ballots to be mailed to a different address than the one with which they registered, although they will still be required to verify their identities using government IDs.

The order also permits poll workers trained for the 2020 election or afterward to staff voting locations in the counties, including the new ones created under DeSantis’s executive order.

Florida was the state most affected by Ian, which left behind extensive damage and resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people in the state alone.

The total death toll is still uncertain as emergency responders continue to search for missing persons across the state.

“In the wake of Hurricane Ian, the Florida Department of State has worked with Florida’s Supervisors of Elections and Governor DeSantis to ensure that the 2022 General Election is administered as efficiently and securely as possible across the state and in the counties that received the heaviest damage,” Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd (R) wrote in a statement announcing the order.