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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he's authorizing election supervisors to make accommodations for voters in counties that were hit hard by Hurricane Helene.
DeSantis spoke from Manatee County on Thursday about recovery efforts that continue after Hurricane Helene and listed three executive actions.
The first was on lifting time restrictions on rentals, so residents who need a place to stay while they recover their homes are not limited, for instance, to 30-day periods.
The governor also authorized supervisors of elections in the hardest-hit counties, including Taylor and Manatee, to make appropriate accommodations so people are still able to vote, like how they were after Hurricane Ian.
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Then, DeSantis said it was "unacceptable" for the dockworkers' strike across the East and Gulf coasts to affect residents who need supplies to rebuild homes and businesses.
"At my direction the Florida National Guard and the Florida State Guard will be deployed to critical ports affected to maintain order, and if possible, resume operations that would otherwise be shut down during this interruption," the governor said.
It was not immediately clear how authorities would do so, or which ports specifically he was referencing.
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He also said he wanted to send the message that Florida ports were open to ships not on strike.
Lastly, DeSantis said three Florida families had been evacuated overnight from North Carolina, which is also reeling from the passage of Helene. (In fact, one South Florida family was rescued by a good Samaritan helicopter pilot when they were stranded there, too.)
Helene was the third time in 13 months that a windswept stretch of Florida’s Big Bend took a direct hit from a hurricane — a one-two-three punch to a 50-mile sliver of the state’s more than 8,400 miles of coastline, first by Idalia, then Category 1 Hurricane Debby in August 2024 and then Helene.
