Elections supervisors in Central Florida have started the process of sending out mail-in-ballots to voters who have requested them. The Florida Department of State said the deadline for a supervisor of elections to send ballots by mail to voters is Thursday.
Marion County has mailed over 42,000 ballots so far. Wilcox predicts that as election day nears, the county will mail about 500 ballots a day.
In Orange County, over 120,000 ballots have been mailed out so far. Orange County’s Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean said he is hopeful that more mail-in-ballots will make election day more efficient
“We're really excited about giving our community the opportunity to get their ballot in their hands so that way they can have the time to plan, read through it, make all the votes cast, let their voice be heard, and then get it back to us in ample time,” Gilzean said. “As we know, this is a very important election.”
One way to check the status of your mailed ballot is with Ballotrax. Check with your local Supervisor of Elections to see if BallotTrax is available for your county. You can also contact your Supervisor of Elections office to make sure your ballot has been counted.
In Orange and Lake County, programs like BallotTrax help ensure that voters who mailed in a ballot did it correctly and it arrived at the supervisor of elections office.
Brevard County has mailed out over 90,000 ballots to residents so far. Tim Bobanic, the Supervisor of Elections for Brevard County, said voters often make mistakes on their mail-in-ballots. If a mailed ballot certificate envelope is missing a signature or the signature does not match the signature on file at the supervisor of elections office, the office will reach out to the voter.
“We will try to reach out to every voter. We will call, text, email, send a letter, anything we can to let voters know that if they forgot to sign it, or if their signature doesn't match, they have the opportunity to cure that signature with a signature cure affidavit and sending a copy of their ID," Bobanic said. "But don't forget to sign your certificate envelope.”
The deadline to return mail in ballots is 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 5 -- Election Day. They must physically be received by the elections supervisor, not just postmarked by the deadline. Ballots received after the deadline will not be counted.
As it gets closer to the day of the election, if you received a mail-in-ballot but prefer to vote in person and have not yet mailed it, you can take your mail-in-ballot to your designated polling location and exchange it for a regular ballot. Read more about what to do with mail-in-ballots as the election day nears here.
Voters who had vote-by-mail requests in 2020 expired in December 2022, following a change in Florida law. Wesley Wilcox the Supervisor of Elections for Marion County said voters will need to request new ballots since the new law took effect, if they haven’t already done so.
“Unlike some years in the past, where you could get an extended vote by mail request, we currently don't have that in the state of Florida,” Wilcox said. “So you must make that request every two years. And everybody's request expires every two years
Another deadline for Florida voters looms -- the deadline to register to vote in the state is Monday, October 7.