'You Get These Ballots Just Showing Up!': DeSantis Backs Trump's Call To Take On Mail-In Ballots

Forbes Breaking News

At a press briefing, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) responded to President Trump's call to end mail-in ballots.

Transcript

00:00Judges view under the auspice of judicial, that's really political when

00:05they're just trying to override the policies that we've enacted through the

00:08normal legislative process.

00:10The president talking about eliminating vote by mail.

00:14Do you think you have the legal authority to do this and do you think it's a little

00:17of a critical consideration?

00:18So I've talked to the president, he's a Florida voter, and what he means by

00:24vote by mail I think just in my conversations is the states like California and Nevada and

00:31others where they just send all these ballots out into the ether basically.

00:36They have a voting list which is not accurate and not cut up to speed and then they dump

00:42all these ballots out there.

00:44So if you're like renting an apartment in Las Vegas and you register to vote there, they'll

00:49mail you a ballot if you don't ask and then they'll mail you a ballot for the person that

00:53rented that apartment before you and then they'll send you a ballot for the person that rented

00:57the apartment before them and you get these ballots just showing up and then they do ballot

01:02harvesting where it becomes this like total fraud.

01:06So I think absolutely that that should not be allowed.

01:10I think what Florida has is absentee voting effectively where you have to request a ballot.

01:17The state of Florida and the local super they are not authorized to mail anybody a ballot

01:23on their own.

01:24They can send you for absentee and obviously you know we've got snowbirds we got so it's

01:28popular to have that option.

01:31Clearly you would need some absentee for military overseas right I mean so that's at a minimum

01:37you'd need that.

01:38But I think Florida you have to show ID to get the ballot.

01:42You have to show ID when you turn it in to verify it and put that on the on the thing.

01:47So this is all being checked.

01:49And there's no ballots that are just out there floating around without that.

01:53We also banned ballot harvesting in Florida.

01:56So you request a ballot you get it you turn it in you're the spouse or something within

02:01reason.

02:02But you don't have these political operatives allowed to just get a satchel of votes and

02:06then just dump them off.

02:08We got rid of the drop boxes.

02:09They want to just put these drop boxes in the middle of town in different places unattended.

02:14Like no we're not we're not doing that.

02:16So we've really I think shown how it's done.

02:20But the the mass mailing of ballots I think has been a huge mistake.

02:25I don't think that there are adequate safeguards on that when you start talking about the California's

02:30and the Nevada's.

02:32And so I think it should be discontinued.

02:35And look I would be fine you know voting you know on Election Day.

02:39Now a lot of people like having the time to early vote or whatever.

02:42And so that's just been built into the Florida system.

02:45But you know I know the old fashioned way was fine with me but definitely just sending

02:49out ballots like that huge huge potential.

02:54And when you pair that with ballot harvesting you know it's like are we trying to determine

02:58the will the people are we just trying to determine you know who's got the best political operatives

03:03to grab these votes and just beg people to give them their ballot.

03:07And I think it honestly leads to intimidation too.

03:10You know if you're in Las Vegas they everyone knows ballots should get mailed out.

03:16You know do you think like the the culinary union is just going to let you kind of vote

03:20your conscience without trying to no they're going to want to see those votes they're going

03:25to want to bring the votes in.

03:26So it creates a whole host of things.

03:29And I just believe in the secret ballot you go in you vote you do that even how Florida's

03:34done it with the absentee no ballot harvesting no interference.

03:38So you're able to do it.

03:39Now what's the authority in the reach?

03:41You know I'd have to look at the federal statutes.

03:43I mean clearly election administration is is primarily a state function.

03:48We've taken that very seriously.

03:49I mean heck the Attorney General can tell you you know he was in our administration when

03:53we did the election crimes unit which has actually brought people to justice for violating election

03:59law illegal aliens voting people voting in multiple jurisdictions people that have been

04:06convicted of homicide and sexual assault illegally voting and those folks have actually been

04:12brought to justice in Florida and I think what was happening in my judgment was yeah you

04:18had laws but it was almost like most prosecutors I had election stuff we don't want to get involved

04:23with that.

04:24We just want to focus on this other stuff.

04:25Well now we have a unit in self self government state government that takes it very seriously.

04:29So from an enforcement perspective the laws against ballot harvesting and Zucker bucks and

04:34all these things getting rid of the drop all that stuff that we've done we've really done

04:39it right I think in Florida Cal and so not only California they send the ballots out.

04:45We will have an election and in the state of Florida your ballots are counted and the results

04:52are produced on election night that's how it used to be it's how those were the expectations.

04:58Then it was like well some of these states are going to take a couple more days and then

05:01California they take weeks to be able to count the ballots.

05:06So you're running for Congress out there it's usually the Republican will be winning after

05:11the election night and they've counted and then they keep counting and keep counting and

05:17keep counting for weeks on end and it takes them it takes them four to six to eight weeks

05:24to be able to produce the results for an election and I'm just thinking to myself how is that

05:30inspiring confidence in all this stuff and the and the the changes in the margins usually

05:36go one way when they keep counting you know they had them the mayor race in LA a few years

05:42ago and you have the current incumbent she was she was not incumbent but she was running she

05:48was backed by the machine the unions and all that stuff you had another Democrat I think

05:53he had maybe have been a Republican he was considered you know more centrist and but people

05:58knew LA needed to be cleaned up so he had a reform message he was winning after the election

06:04day or the primary day and then like two weeks later she wins by like 10% and I'm thinking

06:10at myself where did those votes come from how do you all of a sudden just be able to pull

06:15all these votes so I think what they do in California I have no confidence in it I think

06:21most people look at that and don't have any confidence in it and don't tell us it can't

06:26be done because in Florida we've shown it can be done and we've had problems with elections

06:32in the past in the state's history but we rectified that and when I came in we had some some hiccups

06:38in the 2018 in some of these counties I took some action but then we work with the legislature

06:43to do robust election integrity measures and it works and and people have confidence and

06:50I've not seen since we've done our reforms there's never been any election result that

06:56I've had any issue I mean because they're the ballot you know how many ballots have been

07:00cast you see how many have been counted and you see the result with California you don't

07:06even know how many votes are outstanding like they can you know post market on election day

07:11and it gets there 10 days later oh yeah we'll count that still I mean so we showed it can

07:15be done I think our our model is the best model for the country but you know I think Congress

07:21may be able to do some things to make it so that these states are not able to do some pull

07:28some of the shenanigans they did but you remember back during COVID you know they were trying to get

07:33me to cancel some of these elections because I was like no no no we're going to do the same thing

07:38but what happened is they put a lot of money in the cares act to really underwrite this whole in

07:43mail-in ballot situation and that really exacerbated the problems in the 2020 election like we've never

07:49seen before so don't well I mean people ask me like oh you know Florida you guys are leading this

07:55you just how you do it I was like you know as governor of Florida I get this great cheat code

08:00all I got to do is look to New York Illinois California and then do the opposite

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