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Keystone Heights woman collects 6,000 signatures to close Florida

Petition gaining traction in response to COVID-19 threat

By Wesley LeBlanc wesley@opcfla.com
Posted 4/1/20

 KEYSTONE HEIGHTS – A local resident got 6,000 signatures on a petition in two days to shut down the State of Florida during the coronavirus pandemic.

Keystone Heights resident …

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Keystone Heights woman collects 6,000 signatures to close Florida

Petition gaining traction in response to COVID-19 threat


Posted

KEYSTONE HEIGHTS – A local resident got 6,000 signatures on a petition in two days to shut down the State of Florida during the coronavirus pandemic.

Keystone Heights resident Ashlyn Layton started a petition on popular petition website, Change.org, last week to request that Gov. Ron DeSantis close the state down. Layton said doing so would be good for the state because she believes many more cases will appear in Florida as more testing is performed.

“Our Governor Ron DeSantis is not doing his job,” Layton said. “We need to shut down the State of Florida. We should have already shut down. Our numbers of COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket. There are many more cases here in Florida that we don’t even know about due to lack of testing being done.

“Please sign this petition. We can change this as American citizens. We have a voice. Please sign this petition and save innocent lives before it’s too late.”

Layton’s petition came hot off the heels of one of Gov. DeSantis’ latest press conferences where he explained that he does not intend to shut down the state.

“We obviously have an outbreak in southeast Florida,” DeSantis said. “I also think there are certain parts of the state where you have more sporadic cases and to order someone not to be able to earn a paycheck when them going to work is not going to have any effect on what we’re doing with the virus, that is something that I think is inappropriate.”

Layton updated her petition recently to say that DeSantis requested a declaration of major disaster in Florida regarding the coronavirus. This request saw the state ask President Donald Trump to activate the Disaster Unemployment Assistance, Crisis Counseling, Community Disaster Loans and Disaster Supplemental Nutrition FEMA programs.

“We are accomplishing something,” Layton said. “Good job. Please keep sharing this petition.”

Change.org doesn’t necessarily send petitions to politicians like DeSantis. The site states that it acts as a platform to give people a unified voice. Petitions from the site have been successful, usually by way of a petition growing to be so large that it can’t be ignored.

A Miami-based petition of the same subject has more than 270,000 signatures. Only time will tell if these petitions are successful.