Floridians who want to vote by mail this presidential election will need to request a ballot.
That's because Florida's law now requires voters to renew their requests for mail-in ballots every two years.
The law, passed in 2021, required that supervisors of elections canceled all existing requests for mail ballots at the end of 2022. It also forced voters to file a new request for a mail ballot every two years instead of every four.
"It wiped out every request that we had on file. So, somebody previously had a request on file, they didn't have one anymore after the 2022 election," said Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer. "They also shortened the cycle, it used to be good through two general election cycles, which was four years. Now it's good through one general election cycle."
Hillsborough County sent over 339,000 vote-by-mail ballots in 2022. As of Monday afternoon, the county had just shy of 71,000 people who had requested mail ballots.
Nearly 80,000 voters in Pasco County voted by mail in 2022, but so far, only 20,000 have requested to vote-by-mail for this election, according to Brian Corley the Supervisor of Elections.
"We identified just shy of 80,000 voters who had a request, and would have gotten it in theory through the 2024 cycle, but that new legislation, of course, negated that," he said.
Since the two year cycle began in January of 2023, all requests will be good through the end of 2024.
Visit your county's supervisor of elections website to request a vote-by-mail ballot or call.
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