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DeSantis signs order urging Florida schools to close during 2020 Primary and General Election

Posted at 10:22 PM, Jun 17, 2020
and last updated 2020-06-18 00:48:03-04

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As Florida prepares for what could be high voter turnout in 2020, Governor Ron DeSantis rolled out a series of recommendations ahead of the state's primary and general elections.

Gov. DeSantis signed an executive order on Wednesday calling on K-12 schools to close during the August Primary and November General Election. That way, schools can be used as polling places for what could be a record year for voter turnout.

ABC Action News checked with our local school districts and saw that they're all slated to have class on August 18 and November 3 as of Wednesday night.

The executive order also encourages all school and state employees to spend those two days serving as poll workers.

Below is the executive order signed by Gov. DeSantis:

The office of Hillsborough County elections supervisor Craig Latimer made us aware of the executive order.

Latimer's office sent out a press release saying, "It comes at a point when many of the state's Supervisors of Elections have already solidified their plans for the August Primary Election. Florida's 67 Supervisors of Elections submitted recommendations to the governor in April, which were substantially different from the accommodations."

The Hillsborough County elections supervisor's office said in the press release it will review Gov. DeSantis' order and determine how it could affect their plans for the Primary and General Elections.

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