Migrants will rebuild Florida by Ron DeSantis 1:28
(CNN) --
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday expanded early voting in counties hardest hit by Hurricane Ian, as Southwest Florida officials scramble to prepare for elections in less than a week. of one month.
DeSantis allowed Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota counties to establish additional early voting sites by executive order and lifted Election Day rules that require people to vote in their assigned precinct.
Additionally, residents of these counties may request that the county send a vote-by-mail ballot to a different address than the one on their voter file.
Secretary of State Cord Byrd said in a statement that he is "confident that our local election officials will have all the resources and support they need to conduct another successful election."
"In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the Florida Department of State has worked with Florida Supervisors of Elections and Governor DeSantis to ensure that the 2022 general election is administered as efficiently and safely as possible throughout the state and in the counties that received the most severe damage," Byrd said.
Before and after images show the destruction of Hurricane Ian on Sanibel Island, Florida
Hurricane Ian hit Florida's Gulf Coast late last month, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.
In addition to destroying homes and businesses, the storm also damaged schools, churches and recreation centers, which traditionally serve as polling places.
In Florida, counties can open early voting centers beginning Oct. 24, but must close them the day before the Nov. 8 election.
Voters can cast a ballot at any early voting location, but must show up at their assigned precinct on Election Day.
DeSantis' executive order removes that Election Day requirement for the three affected counties and also allows voting to take place there on Nov. 7.
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Lee County had previously planned to stop early voting on Nov. 5, but Tommy Doyle, the nation's supervisor of elections, said earlier this week that he intended to allow people to vote at any of 12 locations. county voting for 16 consecutive days.
"So wherever you live, you can go vote anywhere," Doyle said.
During the 2020 election, DeSantis refused to make similar accommodations for voting due to the pandemic, despite requests from local election officials.
In a letter to DeSantis sent in April of that year, the association that represents Florida's supervisors of elections asked the Republican governor for flexibility to create additional polling places and allow people to vote at any designated polling place until the day of the elections.
Immigrant workers are not intimidated by DeSantis and flock to Florida to help hurricane recovery
Instead, DeSantis took other steps.
He used his executive authority to allow counties to count mail-in ballots earlier than allowed by law, which helped the state's 67 counties count and report 99% of their results on election night.
He also killed a law that bars state employees from serving as poll workers.
In an executive order, DeSantis wrote that these permits were necessary because "the strict application of some provisions of the Florida Election Code may prevent, hinder, or delay action necessary to address the COVID-19 emergency."
However, DeSantis has since suggested Florida failed to take any action to ease the burden on election administrators caused by the pandemic, and has criticized other states that did.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando in February, DeSantis told attendees, "We didn't change the rules when Covid hit. We followed the law."
DeSantis also made specific accommodations for voters affected by Hurricane Michael, a storm that swept through northwest Florida in October 2018. A year after Michael hit, DeSantis issued an executive order allowing two counties to establish additional polling places and extend early voting until Election Day, citing the ongoing recovery taking place in that part of the state.
Voting is already underway in Florida for the 2022 election, in which DeSantis is seeking a second term.
More than 3.8 million ballots were mailed statewide and about 330,000 have been returned to local election offices as of Thursday morning, including 2,400 in Lee County, 4,400 in Charlotte County and 5,400 in Sarasota County.
Doyle, the Lee County Supervisor of Elections, has encouraged voters to request another vote-by-mail ballot if theirs was lost or damaged by the hurricane.
"They can request up to three," he said.
-- Melissa Alonso contributed to this report.
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