DeSantis will send Florida Guard to ports over strikes

TALLAHASSEE – Florida’s governor said Thursday he is deploying the Florida National Guard and Florida State Guard to “critical ports” where workers are on strike and urged the Biden administration to put down the protests before they harm storm recovery efforts – though he declined to be able to personally message delivery.

While President Joe Biden flew to Tallahassee for an air tour of Hurricane Helene’s destruction along Florida’s Gulf Coast, Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference in Anna Maria. According to the White House, the governor was invited to visit the president in north Florida.

“We don’t have time for delays,” DeSantis said, telling reporters he decided not to meet with the president because he wanted to keep his previously scheduled appearance. “Biden-Harris has an obligation to stand up for the storm victims, stand up for the people whose homes were destroyed or lost, and make sure they have what they need to get back on their feet.”

Biden, just before leaving for Tallahassee to check out the Florida coast, said, “I think we’re making progress” on the dock strike. He did not agree to details.

DeSantis blamed the Biden administration for what he called potential delays in the delivery of needed goods to recover storm victims due to strikes by nearly 50,000 dock workers that began Tuesday at Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico ports, including Port Tampa Bay and PortMiami .

After the event, DeSantis’ X account posted a video clip in which he discussed his actions at Florida ports, again blaming Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris – the Democratic presidential candidate – for allowing “supply chain disruptions to harm vulnerable people.” situation.” by a Category 4 hurricane.”

DeSantis said he was deploying guards in accordance with his order to “maintain order and, if possible, resume activities that would otherwise be suspended during this pause.” The order was less clear, saying the guards could be activated “to deal with this emergency and respond to any disruption caused” by the strike.

He said he is also directing the Department of Transportation to coordinate “with seaport, rail and trucking partners” to “limit disruptions” and with the Florida Highway Patrol to manage traffic to “accelerate the flow of currently held-up goods.” DeSantis also waives highway tolls, weight and size restrictions and operating hours limits for commercial vehicles and their drivers affected by the strike.

“We have thousands of homes that need significant repairs or complete rebuilding,” DeSantis said. “We know that further harm to our residents is unacceptable.”

Voting and leasing

On Thursday, DeSantis issued a total of three executive orders to help with storm recovery, including one aimed at helping renters in storm-damaged areas and another aimed at facilitating elections in counties where polling places were damaged by the storm.

Similar to DeSantis’ executive order issued after Hurricane Ian in 2022, which also made landfall in late September ahead of the November election, DeSantis issued an executive order Thursday that allows election supervisors to relocate or consolidate polling places and gives them 10 additional days to determine early voting and the location of drop boxes. It also makes it easier to send an absentee ballot to a voter’s address other than the address on file.

DeSantis said the order targets the counties hardest hit by the hurricane: Charlotte, Citrus, Dixie, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota and Taylor.

Florida supervisors of elections were working with the governor’s office on an executive order aimed at addressing the various needs of affected counties, the organization’s president Travis Hart said earlier this week.

On Saturday, Pinellas Elections Commissioner Julie Marcus told the Department of State in an email that as many as 40 polling places in the county may have sustained significant damage and required relocation.

Pasco County Supervisor Brian Corley said earlier this week that there are at least two polling places in the county that will be unusable in November.

In Taylor County, where the hurricane made landfall, Supervisor Dana Southerland said Monday that she had sent out “a whole long list” of requests so her office could best run the election.

The governor’s third executive order issued Thursday will allow storm victims to enter into leases with apartment complexes and timeshare properties for any period of time, instead of the typical 30 days, DeSantis said.

“The bottom line is that you may need less than 30 days to renovate your home,” DeSantis said.