Despite a recent surge of vote-by-mail ballot requests, Orange County is seeing 50% less vote-by-mail ballots requested for this upcoming primary election than in 2022.
Vote-by-mail requests expired in December 2022, following a change in Florida law. To participate in the upcoming primary by mail, new requests must be made by August 8th.
Christopher Heath is the public information officer for Orange County’s supervisor of elections. He said his biggest concern is that voters may not know they need to update their vote-by-mail requests.
“What we don't want is somebody who really does want to vote-by-mail and is sitting at home waiting for that ballot to arrive,” Heath said. “And it's not going to because they don't realize their request expired.”
Ballot requests can be made online, or by contacting the Orange County Supervisor of Elections office.
Heath is also asking vote-by-mail voters to pay attention to deadlines. Vote-by-mail ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on election day -- postmarks do not count.
“If you're within about a week or so of the election day and you still have it in your possession, you might consider bringing it to our office rather than post marking it,” Heath said.
Brevard County’s supervisor of elections has also seen a decrease in vote-by-mail requests. So far, about 66,000 Brevard voters have requested their mail ballot for the upcoming election.
In 2022, the county issued about 150,000 mail ballots, but only received around 91,000 ballots back.
Brevard County’s supervisor of elections, Tim Bobanic, said the most important things residents can do this upcoming election season is make sure their signature is updated and to make sure they are aware of deadlines and ballot changes.
“Let's get the word out [to] friends, neighbors, people who want to continue to vote by mail,” Bobanic said.
“They need to put that request in, and they put a request in for the primary. It will be good for the primary and the general election.”
Like Orange County, Brevard voters can make a vote-by-mail request online or by contacting the Supervisor of Elections office.
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