In Break With Trump, DeSantis Says Florida Ready for Election

(Bloomberg) -- Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said there’s no need to delay November elections in his state after President Donald Trump raised the possibility of doing so nationally.

Trump suggested in a tweet Thursday that the election should be delayed over concerns about in-person voting during the Covid-19 pandemic, saying without evidence that mail-in voting leads to fraud.

“So he asked for the election to be delayed?” DeSantis said to reporters in Merritt Island, appearing surprised. “Well, I don’t think in Florida.”

DeSantis said Florida’s popular vote-by-mail system works. He noted that voters must first request a ballot, and that he would be more concerned if ballots were mailed to everyone automatically.

Voter fraud is rare in the U.S. DeSantis asserted that it is a serious issue, but one that he thought U.S. attorneys were “on top of.”

“Florida will be in a good spot to go,” he added.

Florida is America’s largest swing state with a critical role in presidential elections, and Floridians request millions of vote-by-mail ballots.

DeSantis rarely disagrees openly with the president, a close ally who supported his election bid. During the Covid-19 pandemic in particular, DeSantis has hewed to White House talking points on the virus and followed Trump’s lead on how to manage the reopening of the economy.

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