Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday that the state would not extend its Oct. 11 voter-registration deadline in response to Hurricane Matthew, throwing cold water on a request from the Clinton campaign.
“I’m not going to extend it,” the governor told reporters Thursday. “Everybody has had a lot of time to register. On top of that, we have lots of opportunities to vote: early voting, absentee voting, Election Day. So I don’t intend to make any changes.”
Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, said Thursday that they hoped election officials in the Sunshine State would consider making accommodations for voters affected by Hurricane Matthew.
“The one thing that we are hoping and expecting is that officials in Florida will adapt deadline to account for the storm,” Robby Mook told reporters.
“The voter registration deadline in Florida is Oct. 11 and then our hope would be that a little bit more time would be given for people who were expecting to be able to get registered before the election and we certainly expect that the governor and local officials will make that possible,” he said.
That clearly is not happening, however, as the governor’s office shut that talk down pretty quickly.
“For any political party to ask this in the middle of a storm is political,” Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said Thursday. “Our No. 1 focus is protecting life. There’ll be another day for politics.”
Clinton’s team stirred controversy this week after it was reported it had taken out a $63,000 Weather Channel ad buy in Florida to run during the hurricane. The ads were scheduled to play from Thursday through Tuesday.
The Democratic nominee’s team later suspended the buy, and announced Thursday they’d hold off until after the storm passed.
Mook said Thursday in reference to the now-reversed commercial placement, “Our first priority on Hurricane Matthew is that people are safe. We’ve been doing everything we can through our social media and our email lists to make sure that all Floridians heed the warnings of public officials that are saying this could be a very deadly storm.”
“We are focused in particular on our staff and volunteers and making sure that they are safe. So that’s our priority and we’ll get back to campaigning when it is appropriate,” he said.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus accused the Clinton campaign Thursday of trying to cash in on the weather event, and he suggested the Democratic nominee was putting her interests before the needs of the people of Florida.
“Couldn’t let this crisis go to waste? Shameful [Hillary Clinton’s] campaign even considered exploiting Hurricane Matthew for political gain,” the RNC chair said Thursday on social media.
“Pulling these ads after getting caught won’t cut it. [Hillary Clinton] should apologize for using storm for votes,” he said. “The people in [the] path of #HurricaneMatthew need our prayers, support, and charity.”
