ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The deadline to register to vote during November’s general election is quickly approaching.
Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said the deadline is Monday, October 5th.
“If you’ve never registered to vote, this is the time to do it,” Cowles said.
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Cowles said he opened his office on Saturday to accommodate people coming in to register. He adds the elections office will also be open on Monday.
“The elections office will be open until 6 p.m. on Monday night here in Orange County so that you can register to vote here and by doing it here you’ll know it’s done, it’s complete, no issues,” he said.
Cowles said the county is on track to have a record number of registered voters for this general election.
“Presidential election in 2016 we had over 776,000 registered voters. Two years ago when we had the U.S. Senate race and the Governor’s contest, we had almost 798,000 registered voters,” Cowles said.
According to the elections office website, there are 849,974 registered voters in Orange County. Cowles said he expects that number will increase.
“We could be rapidly approaching up to maybe 880 to 890,000 voters for this general election, which would be an all-time high,” he said.
Cowles said if you can’t make it to the elections office located at 119 West Kaley Street in Orlando, you have other options.
He said you can register to vote online at www.registertovoteflorida.gov.
Cowles said you can also print the registration form from the state elections website or from your local elections office website and mail it in. But he warns you want to make sure you drop it off at the post office on time.
“It’s got to be postmarked October the fifth or it doesn’t count,” Cowles said.
He adds if you are already registered, now is a good time to make sure your information is up to date.
“If you’re already registered in Florida, but you’ve moved and you haven’t updated your address you can do that all the way up to election day at the polling place, but we highly recommend that you do it now because we’re getting ready to send out the sample ballots on October 13th,” He said.
Cowles said registering to vote is just the first step in the elections process.
“Get out and vote because that’s the real statistic,” he said.