Florida electors cast 29 votes for Trump, but new Senate president is sidelined by COVID-19
Florida’s presidential election wrapped up with little fanfare Monday after the state’s 29 Republican electors cast their votes for President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
Meeting in the Senate chambers in the Capitol, the 29 GOP lawmakers, donors and current and former party officials spent an hour casting their electoral college votes. Despite winning Florida, Trump lost the overall presidential race to former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, with his 4-year-old daughter Madison in his lap, watched as the electors signed their choices for president and vice president, which were then counted by staffers and the results announced.
“Let the record reflect Donald J. Trump received 29 electoral votes for president of the United States,” Secretary of State Laurel
Lee said, to mild applause.
The state’s GOP electors included Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, new Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, future Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and Republican Party Chairman Joe Gruters, a senator from Sarasota.
Typically nothing more than a formality every four years, the meeting of each state’s presidential electors on Monday was closely watched after Trump and his surrogates — including DeSantis and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody — spent the last 41 days trying to discredit the results in several states that voted for Biden. All state electors cast their ballots Monday, which will be counted by the U.S. Congress when it meets in joint session on Jan. 6.
Lee, the state’s top elections official who was appointed by DeSantis, presided over Monday’s count and repeated assurances that Florida’s 2020 election was safe and fair.
In Florida, the pandemic forced the meeting to be closed to the public, and electors had to be tested for COVID-19 before entering the Capitol. News media were allowed to watch from the Senate gallery.
The electors were encouraged to wear masks during the meeting, but many removed them as they walked to the front of the Senate chambers to sign their names on the state’s six election certificates, which formalized the vote.
The coronavirus tests forced one of the 29 electors, Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, to drop out after he tested positive for the coronavirus Sunday night.
“It was a great honor to be selected to serve our state in this historic capacity, and I was very much looking forward to casting my vote for President Trump and Vice President Pence,” he wrote in a letter to DeSantis Monday morning.
Simpson, who was formally chosen as Senate president last month, is the most high-profile state lawmaker known to test positive for the virus. Senate spokeswoman Katie Betta said Simpson was feeling OK, with symptoms similar to allergies or a “slight head cold.”
Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, was chosen as his replacement at the beginning of the ceremony.