โMe signing this invoice says: Florida, your vote counts, your vote goes to be forged with integrity and transparency and this can be a excellent place for democracy,โ DeSantis stated in a signing ceremony that was broadcast reside on โFox & Pals.โ (Sure, that actually occurred.)
Amongst different issues, the invoice made it harder to vote by mail, allowed extra partisan statement of the vote-counting course of and restricted the variety of poll dropboxes within the state.
That was, apparently, not sufficient. As a result of DeSantis this week has stated
he wants to go further โ cracking down on so-called โpoll harvestingโ and pushing election officers to purge their voter rolls extra typically. โWeโll do one other package deal of election integrity reforms thatโs going to make Florida manner No. 1 by an extended shot anyplace within the nation,โ DeSantis promised.
Presidential politics, principally.
See, DeSantis, regardless of pushing via the election invoice earlier this yr, has not too long ago come below strain from Trumpists throughout the GOP to name for an audit of the 2020 presidential election within the state.
โIf Florida governor Ron DeSantis doesnโt order an audit of the 2020 election to show the truth that there are over 1 million phantom voters on the Florida voter rolls within the Sunshine state I could also be compelled to hunt the Libertarian celebration nomination for governor Florida in 2022 #ByeRon,โ wrote Roger Stone, a one-time adviser to the previous President,
on a social media site called Gab this week.
Stoneโs ridiculous declare โ and much more ridiculous menace about working for governor in 2022 โ comes lower than a month after state Rep. Anthony Sabatini signaled his intent to file a invoice for the following legislative session that might
โappoint an independent third party to conduct a forensic audit of the general election that took place on November 3, 2020.โ
It is unclear what Stone and Sabatini are speaking about. Donald Trump beat Joe Biden by greater than
370,000 votes in Florida in 2020. As DeSantisโ workplace has famous, there was each a pre- and post-election audit. They discovered no important irregularity within the vote.
If you happen to suppose it is a coincidence that DeSantis introduced his intent to push for much more voting strictures on the identical week that strain started to construct on him โ from the likes of Stone โ for a recounting of the 2020 election, nicely, then, welcome to how politics works. DeSantis does not wish to audit the vote (once more) however he additionally is aware of that his political future relies upon totally on staying within the good graces of Trump and those that help the previous president.
And so, he throws them a bone on so-called โelection safetyโ even whereas not giving them every part they need.
(It is this similar motivation, by the best way, that result in DeSantisโ announcement Thursday that Florida would sue the federal authorities over the deliberate vaccine mandate for corporations with greater than 100 staff. โI simply suppose persons are so sick of regularly being bossed round, restricted, mandated, all these various things,โ
said DeSantis. โNow we have had sufficient of it and we would like folks to have the ability to make their very own selections.โ)
Stone, by no means one to go away something to subtext, was blunt about DeSantis in an interview with the South
Florida Sun Sentinel this week. โI might additionally just like the governor to declare his help for a 2024 presidential bid by President Trump which he has not performed,โ Stone stated through textual content message. โI can not speculate as to why the governor has not urged the previous president to run however I really feel strongly that President Trump could be the strongest candidate.โ
The explanation, after all, is as a result of DeSantis needs to run for president himself in 2024. And, if
early straw polls and common buzz is to be believed, the Florida governor is, with out query, the strongest candidate for Republicans not named โDonald Trump.โ
The fragile line he should stroll to maintain that hope alive is to pay sufficient deference to Trump to maintain the previous president from attacking whereas avoiding whole capitulation in terms of 2024 โ because the likes of
Nikki Haley and
Tim Scott have performed.
Trump himself appears to concentrate on what DeSantis is doing. Requested final month about the opportunity of going through DeSantis in 2024, Trump was massively dismissive.
โIf I confronted him, I might beat him like I might beat everybody else,โ
Trump told Yahoo Finance. โI believe most individuals would drop out, I believe he would drop out.โ