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There is no provision in Florida law to:

1) Allow Absentee Ballots to be used in person
2) Allow Absentee Ballots to be used to extend Early Voting

Fla. Stat. § 101.65 Lists the instructions for absentee voters, filing and signing the ballot, and returning it in the provided envelope via mail

Fla. Stat. § 101.69 Deals with voting in person even though the voter has requested an absentee ballot. The voter must return the absentee ballot and the election officials will mark it "canceled"

Fla. Stat. § 104.17 Any person who willfully votes or attempts to vote both in person and by absentee ballot at any election is guilty of a felony of the third degree.... Clearly this statute is to prohibit a voter from voting more than once, it illustrates that the purpose of Absentee Ballots is to enable voters who are out of the area to vote.

There is no provision in Florida law for using Absentee Ballots for "in person absentee voting", the statutes governing Absentee Ballots show the clear intent: Absentee Ballots are for people who are out of the area or incapacitated. For example, overseas (§ 101.698) or in nursing homes (§ 101.655).

EVERYONE MUST HAVE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO VOTE.

Allowing voting in these counties while prohibiting it in other counties violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment:

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”

Why were voters in other counties prohibited from voting?

The media has been dead quiet on this issue.

I'm sorry, Ray, but you are mistaken about absentee ballots. The law was changed several years ago to eliminate the hardship affidavit, and provide absentee ballots to everyone without a reason. F.S.101.6107(4)(c)
“The supervisor shall provide an absentee ballot to each elector by whom a request for that ballot has been made by one of the following means: (telephone, in person, email)
“3.
By personal delivery before 7 p.m. on election day to the elector, upon presentation of the identification required in s. 101.043
and it can be returned by mail or in person
F.S.101.67(2)
“(2)
All marked absent electors’ ballots to be counted must be received by the supervisor by 7 p.m. the day of the election. All ballots received thereafter shall be marked with the time and date of receipt and filed in the supervisor’s office.”

The instructions about the secrecy envelope and certificate you reference apply to all absentee ballots- and they are stored together until they are ready to be opened and counted. As opposed to early votes which are run through the scanner by the voter for under or over votes, or errors, and then sequestered with the other early votes for reporting purposed. Military absentee requests have another set of rules.

There is nothing in the law prohibiting supervisors from issuing absentee ballots while they are open getting ready for election day. So some took advantage of the “loophole” and the legislature needs to fix that next year. But if it was illegal, the state would have shut them down.
I'm sorry you think corruption is so rampant among elected officials in Florida that they allowed crimes to go on. Laws are often imperfect, but not deliberately written to encourage fraud. And the crooked politicians are not the norm. Incompetence is much more common and just as dangerous.
I'm not a Pollyanna- of course there is fraud occurring. Absentee fraud is rampant- ballot brokers that troll the obituaries, Snowbirds voting twice, college students voting twice. But until other states are willing to share voter data with us, proof is hard to come by.
St Lucie's recount today was terrible, and needs to be corrected. But the 3 elected officials certifying the vote count are a county judge, the chair of the county commission and the Supervisor of elections. Do you really believe they would risk their freedom and careers, all while being so clumsy at committing fraud? I don't. Sloppy, incompetent, confused- sure. But not criminal fraud.