DeSantis won’t address Trump tweet about delaying election

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he supports Florida’s mail-in voting system but declined to address President Trump’s tweet suggesting a delay in the election because of his concerns that mass mail-in voting would lead to fraud.

“To just have ballots flying out there willy nilly, I do think that would be a mistake,” DeSantis said, but he did not answer a direct question about whether the election should be delayed.

DeSantis said he had not seen the president’s tweet because he was watching the launch of Mars rover from Cape Canaveral. “Did he say the election should be delayed?” he asked a reporter.

The president’s tweet reads: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

DeSantis, who was at the Space Coast for a discussion about its burgeoning private space industry, went on to say that mass mail-in voting could create “avenues for fraud.”

But, he noted, that’s not how it works in Florida where voters must request a mail-in ballot. Some states do send out ballots to every eligible voter, but despite Trump’s declarations, there has been no evidence that doing so has led to widespread fraud.

Concerns about safety are expected to generate a massive increase in mail-in voting this year amid the coronavirus pandemic as Trump seeks reelection against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

In March, as the coronavirus began to emerge, the governor insisted the presidential primary would go on as scheduled, and it did.

“We’re definitely voting. They voted during the Civil War. We’re going to vote,” he said during a Tallahassee news conference.

During the meeting Thursday, DeSantis signed into law HB 717, which allows Space Florida, the state’s space industry agency, more flexibility in issuing bonds to help bring in more space companies.

DeSantis also attended the successful launch of the Mars Perseverance rover atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rover began its nearly seven-month journey to the Red Planet lifting off right on time at 7:50 a.m.

“This is really a good story, just about in difficult times continuing with the mission, obviously putting safety first but really continuing to do great things,” DeSantis said. “Really, you guys took the bull by the horns and continued with this mission.”

The meeting included leaders from Blue Origin, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance, OneWeb as well as Florida Rep. Thad Altman, R-Indialantic.

“We are on the cusp of becoming the Silicon Valley of space,” Altman said. “We’re building an engine so the private sector can prosper.”