DeSantis extends early voting days, suspends some poll training requirements amid hurricane fallout

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week issued an executive order altering some local voting rules in Florida to facilitate access to the polls through early November following the devastating path carved by Hurricane Ian in that state late last month.

The state will be holding both federal midterm elections as well as a statewide election for governor, among other races. 

DeSantis in an executive order on Thursday extended early voting days, and established additional early voting centers, for Charlotte, Lee, and Sarasota counties, which were particularly hard-hit by Ian's landfall on Sept. 27. 

The measure also allows voters in those areas to request via phone that mail-in ballots "be mailed to an address other than their address of record," though it explicitly notes that voters must still provide proper identification as part of that process. 

The order also relaxes certain training requirements for poll staffers by "making eligible any poll workers previously trained for the 2020 election cycle and thereafter."

Secretary of State Cord Byrd said in the release that the order will ensure that the state's elections are "administered as efficiently and securely as possible across the state and in the counties that received the heaviest damage."