Gov. Ron DeSantis told Floridians the state would be going ahead with the upcoming Tuesday primary despite the recent coronavirus outbreak.
“We’re definitely voting. They voted during the Civil War. We’re going to vote,” the Republican governor said during a Friday press conference.
DeSantis said potentially suppressed voting because of the virus likely will not affect the outcome of the presidential primary results as President Trump and Joe Biden are both expected to win in landslide results.
“The primaries, the way this has worked out quite frankly, are not going to be cliffhangers,” he said. So far, nearly 2 million Florida voters have cast ballots through early voting or by mail.
Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee also assured the public about voting Tuesday.
“Unlike concerts, sporting events, or other mass gatherings where large groups of people travel long distances to congregate in a confined space for an extended period of time, polling locations see people from a nearby community coming into and out of the building for a short duration,” Lee said in a statement with officials from other states voting on Tuesday.
DeSantis did warn that officials should move voting locations out of assisted living facilities in order to protect elderly people from the coronavirus.
“We need to be erring on the side of safety. I don’t want people going into these assisted living facilities if they’re not part of that community,” he said.
