SANFORD, Fla. – In December 2022, Seminole County had 100,000 vote-by-mail requests stored in its records.
An approved request means that a voter wants a ballot mailed to them for every election in a cycle, including some 58,000 people who voted by mail in the November 2022 election, according to state records.
But thanks to a 2021 Florida law, all of those requests were wiped out in 2023, and now the Seminole County supervisor of elections is trying to get all those voters and more to fill out new requests, and before any potential local elections this November.
“I know a lot of people may not be paying attention to the election offices right now but they are getting courted by presidential candidates, so they are getting into the election season, if you will, so we want to coincide with that to get them prepared for how they can vote,” Chris Anderson, the elections supervisor for the county, told News 6 Wednesday.
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Before Florida lawmakers changed the law in 2021, ballot requests were good for two federal election cycles (four years). But thanks to SB 90, ballot requests are now only good for one federal election cycle (two years).
The Seminole County supervisor of elections office sent out some 86,000 mailers to voters who had to update their vote-by-mail ballot requests.
But getting people to answer their mail is not as easy as it used to be. The office only has 6,000 ballot requests updated.
“It’s quite a bit of work on the staff to process those vote-by-mail requests,” Anderson said. “So we want to get that taken care of because as you can imagine, once we get that list taken care of we have to start preparing for the election.”
Anderson said his office will be getting out to events around the county to try and find those people, while also trying to sign up new voters.
Elections workers will have tables set up at several of the July 4 events around the county over the next week.
They will also do a public library tour from July 17 to 21 to register voters and also get vote-by-mail request forms filled out.
“The early bird gets the worm,” Anderson said. “So we don’t want them to wait until Nov. 1 of next year because by that time it will be too late to get their request.”
News 6 reached out to the counties in our coverage area, seeking information about vote-by-mail. Here’s what we’ve heard back so far:
Seminole County has had around 100,000 vote-by-mail requests, as mentioned, with around 6,000 renewed so far.
In Lake County this latest May, the supervisor of elections sent mailers to around 49,000 vote-by-mail voters who had not renewed. The county has processed a total of 9,049 vote-by-mail requests for this election cycle.
For Osceola County, the 2022 election cycle saw around 80,000 vote-by-mail requests. Currently, it’s right around 20,000.
The 2022 election cycle in Marion County resulted in 69,670 vote-by-mail requests on file. Since Jan. 1 of this year, 12,844 voters have been renewed or requested. The county has not targeted all residents with mailers yet, though in a special House District 24 election, mailers were sent to those who voted by mail in 2022 and lived in the district. Mailers are going out now for the upcoming September election, and aside, all remaining voters who voted by mail in 2022 should receive mailers in September or October.
Brevard County in the 2022 election cycle received 150,504 vote-by-mail requests, with 10,976 received since Jan. 1 of this year.
To request a vote-by-mail ballot, you can go to the Seminole County supervisor of elections office’s website and apply online or print out the form and mail it into the office.
You can also make the request by calling the office at 407-585-8683.
Voters in other counties should also check in with their elections supervisor’s offices to get their vote-by-mail ballot request updated and also check the status of their voter file.
Find the county elections office information HERE.
Have questions about voting by mail? News 6 answers common questions about the process HERE.
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