ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida is holding an election on Tuesday, Aug. 20. The deadline to register to vote, or to update your voter registration is Monday.
County supervisor of elections offices across the state are holding extended hours for people who want to register. You also have until midnight to register to vote, check your voter status, or update your registration at the Florida government website, RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov.
But that is not the only deadline voters need to be thinking about.
Aug. 8 is the deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot for the election, and while more people are starting to request ballots the numbers are still lower than they were in 2022.
[RESULTS 2024: Want to vote in Florida? Here’s how to register and make sure you are eligible]
Florida voters can send in a request for a vote-by-mail ballot, and that request lasts for all elections over a two-year period. Since all VBM ballot requests expired at the end of 2022, anyone who wants to vote by mail has to send in a new request.
Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Chris Anderson is starting to think that maybe the number of ballot requests back then was more of a blip caused by COVID.
“You know, prior to this, we had a lot of folks that might have decided that they didn’t want to do it anymore,” Anderson said. “So, you know, what we’re looking at now is we’re looking at a very accurate list of individuals. It is down, but it inflated over from 2020 from folks that were voting big based on COVID-19.”
Seminole County had 101,000 vote-by-mail requests in 2022. This year so far they have 48,630.
It’s not just Seminole County seeing a decline.
Osceola County had 78,000 ballot requests in 2022. So far officials have about 38,000 ballot requests this year.
Orange County had 214,000 ballot requests in 2022, but officials only have 87,292 requests so far.
As for other counties:
- Brevard County: 67,484
- Flagler County: 17,222
- Lake County: 27,287
- Marion County: 30,873
- Sumter County: 30,138
- Volusia County: 70,418
Seminole County voters we talked to on Monday were puzzled about the drop in ballot requests.
“I don’t understand the metrics of that because oftentimes, you know, it’s very simple,” said Seminole County voter Ken Brooker said. “It’s easy to do, I don’t understand why the numbers are down at all.”
Another voter, Bob Turk, said he thinks it’s still early in the election season.
“I think that there will be more as we get through the process,” Turk said. “Especially since the things that have happened here recently. but I think we’ll be able to catch up with those numbers.”
To vote by mail, you can go to your county supervisor of elections website and sign up. If you decide to mail, fax or email a ballot request, you must use a new form provided by the state.
All requests must have this information:
- Voter’s full name
- Date of birth
- Address
- The voter’s Florida driver’s license number, identification card number or last four digits of their social security number
Those identification numbers are required to be on file with the county supervisor of elections office to get your VBM ballot request approved.
For more information about voting by mail, including how to track your ballot, ways to turn it in, and what happens if you make a mistake, we have a full story in our Results 2024 section.
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