DeSantis warns against dragging out vote counting beyond election night: ‘It’s completely killing public trust’

Finding out who will be the 47th president of the United States could take quite some time after election night, if speculations in a recent New York Times article are true.

With just over 50 days until voters head to the polls in droves, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says extending the recount beyond election night is “outrageous.”

“You can have a big lead because of Election Day votes and then people wake up the next morning and say, ‘Yeah, my candidate is up 6%,’ and then they keep counting the next day, and then they count more the next day, and then the lead changes,” he told “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Thanksgiving Family Leaders Forum, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

“Even if there was nothing (bad), even if everything was legitimate, that destroys confidence in how this election is going to play out,” he continued. “So any of these states that are doing what The New York Times is saying, they are absolutely destroying public confidence in this election.”

“Count the votes on election night and report the results.”

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An election worker flattens ballots during the 2024 Pennsylvania primary election at the City of Philadelphia election warehouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Ballot counting could take some time in this election, especially with a larger number of mail-in ballots. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Times article, published Friday, suggested that the trend of the 2020 presidential election could be repeated in the 2024 showdown, with an increasing likelihood that “there will be no clear, immediate winner on election night” and that “early returns could give a false impression of who will ultimately prevail.”

Long return times and the mirage of a blue or red election night are predominantly attributed to an increasing use of mail-in voting instead of traditional in-person voting.

DeSantis pledged to repeat the Sunshine State’s example of 2020 this time around, counting the votes and declaring a clear winner of the state’s 30 electoral votes before the end of the night.

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“We can’t be in a situation where the results won’t be known for a few days. What will happen in those days? Where will those votes come from? Florida will report the results on election night. You can take them to the bank,” he promised.

The Republican-led state has taken steps to increase election security, including requiring a voter ID for every ballot cast and ensuring that illegal immigrants and other noncitizens do not vote.

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