DeSantis encourages Floridians to vote early, while other Republicans urge voters to wait until election day

With early voting now underway in more than half of Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has taken a very different stance to Donald Trump by urging his voters to get out there and vote early.

DeSantis told his supporters to cast their ballots sooner rather than later, in spite of calls from former President Donald Trump and several other Republicans to hold off until November 8th.

DeSantis often tries to gauge how his crowd will vote at rallies by asking “How many of you are going to do a mail ballot?” “Early in person?” Media outlets at DeSantis’s rallies reported that there is a resounding cheer when DeSantis says “Election Day?”

On Sunday in DeSantis told a packed Jewish community center to get to the polls as soon as possible to avoid a “mulligan” in two weeks.

“If you wait till Election Day, you get a flat tire, you can’t take a mulligan,” DeSantis said. “Whereas if you vote early, you do it, you’re in the can. If something happens [while you’re on your way], you got another shot at it.”

“We can’t be complacent about this,” he added.

A mulligan is an expression mainly used in golf when a free shot is given to a golfer in informal play when the previous shot was poorly played.

DeSantis, is currently ahead of Democratic opponent Charlie Crist by 8 points, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average. DeSantis and Crist, who is a former Florida governor, will have their first and only debate in South Florida on Monday.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio encouraged his voters to use in-person voting should they decide to vote early. Rubio said that “there’s danger involved in drop boxes.”