Florida Governor Rick Scott announced Thursday that the eight counties hit hardest by Hurricane Michael will have the ability to start and end their early voting periods beyond state deadlines and make it easier for citizens to vote by mail.
Flashback: Florida Democrats filed an injunction last week requesting an extension on voter registration by at least a week, but Scott only granted an extension for a single day.
"In the year since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, political parties, candidates and voting rights groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to court residents who fled to the mainland, hoping to register them and get them to the polls," USA Today's Deborah Barfield Berry reports.
The big picture: "[M]ost settled in Florida, where [there are hot Senate and governor's races, and] get-out-the-vote efforts have been intense."
