Could Ian lead to a delay of the election in certain counties (or even statewide)? Yes, in fact, county delays have happened before

Our Dave Trotter posted this to Twitter:

Going to tweet this again:

The Florida Constitution says in Article VI, Section 5:

A general election may be suspended or delayed due to a state of emergency or impending emergency pursuant to general law.

So yeah, keep that in mind. #flapol

Originally tweeted by Dave Trotter 🇺🇦 (@davetrotter101) on October 4, 2022.

The reality is this has happened before:

in 1992 the primary was delayed in (Miami) Dade County by a week after Hurricane Andrew.
in 1998, the runoff election was delayed in Monroe County by a week after Hurricane Georges.
As all our readers know, every accommodation imaginable was made for voters in Bay County after Hurricane Michael in 2018.

For those who don’t follow electoral numbers closely, Lee County is the most populated county in Florida that regularly votes GOP. It’s the buckle on the GOP’s belt which controls the electoral politics of the state. The thought of losing votes in Lee County or Charlotte or DeSoto, both also heavily GOP is unimaginable, so if recovery efforts don’t make voting in normal fashion possible, expect the Governor to make every accommodation necessary to maximize turnout potential particularly from Lee.

Unlike Michael, which hit a relatively less populated area (though one that was as heavily pro-GOP) this storm has hit directly in the MOST IMPORTANT REGION FOR STATEWIDE GOPERS.

I’d expect the election to be postponed or some other arrangement to be made.

In fact Peter Schorsch reports, the conversations are already underway in GOP world. Stay tuned.