Florida Democrats Encourage Vote-By-Mail

From the Florida Phoenix: By Lloyd Dunkelberger - March 30, 2020

With the COVID-19 crisis casting doubt on in-person voting, Florida Democrats plan to text more than 1 million voters this week encouraging them to register to vote by mail in the upcoming elections.

“Florida Democrats have long invested in boosting vote-by-mail turnout among unlikely voters, and this method of remove voting is increasingly important in the face of the coronavirus pandemic,” the Florida Democratic Party said in a statement.

The state party will work in conjunction with the Democratic National Committee in the texting campaign.

“We need to modernize our voting systems to protect voters, and our partnership with the DNC to enroll Floridians in vote-by-mail does just that. If (President Donald) Trump and (Gov. Ron) DeSantis won’t act to protect the vote from a global pandemic, we will,” Juan Penalosa, the state party’s executive director, said in a statement.

The Florida Democratic Party used a $1 million campaign in the 2018 election cycle to sign up more than 578,000 new Democrats to vote remotely, party officials said. They also said a record vote-by-mail turnout in the March presidential primary led to more Democrats voting than they did in the 2016 presidential primary.

“Vote-by-mail is a reliable and safe method for Floridians to vote during this time of uncertainty,” the party said.

Meanwhile, Republicans say they remain ahead of the Democrats in keeping in contact with voters during the coronavirus crisis.

“While Florida Democrats are scrambling to modernize their outdated ground game, Trump Victory seamlessly transitioned our voter outreach operation to virtual platforms within 24 hours of President Trump’s social distancing announcement,” Emma Vaughn, the Florida spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, told the Florida Phoenix.

As an example of the switch from a traditional ground game to an online campaign, the Trump Victory in Florida has hosted 192 virtual leadership initiative training sessions and volunteers have made over 1 million calls from their homes over the last two weeks, Vaughn said.

This story was originally published by the Florida Phoenix. For more stories from the Florida Phoenix, visit FloridaPhoenix.com.