SANFORD, Fla. – Voting rights advocates in Seminole County said they are on a mission and are urging the Board of County Commissioners to provide paid postage on vote-by-mail ballots for Results 2024.
They believe that will encourage more people to vote and not worry about sending their ballot through the mail.
“It’s sometimes very difficult to number one find the time and maybe it’s not on their radar,” said Deann Schott with the League of Women Voters.
Schott said this is important not only for the presidential election in November but also for Florida’s primary election in August.
[RELATED: Here’s everything you need to know to vote in Florida in 2024]
“The cost is just not that much and if you truly believe in representative government, please make it easy,” Schott explained.
According to USPS.com, the cost of a stamp is 68 cents.
Schott said back in 2022, voting rights advocates requested free postage for mail-in ballots for Seminole County residents but were denied.
Seminole County Chair Jay Zembrower says ballot postage should be a state issue.
“Currently, there are approximately 12 states which have legislation in place for postage on mail-in ballots. This is best served at a state level for all the known reasons, specifically for equal treatment for all citizens of the 67 counties in the state of Florida,” Zembrower told News 6.
[RELATED: Planning to vote by mail in Florida this year? Here’s what you need to know]
News 6 learned most Central Florida counties include a return postage-paid envelope with your vote-by-mail ballot.
The counties that do include:
- Brevard
- Lake
- Marion
- Orange
- Osceola
- Polk
- Volusia
Flagler, Seminole and Sumter counties do not provide a return postage-paid envelope. However, county elections supervisors we talked to say that vote-by-mail ballots that don’t have correct postage will still be delivered to the supervisor of elections offices, citing this publication from the U.S. Postal Service.
“I’m hoping that seeing the wide support that we have and how it really makes good sense to provide the postage. In the scheme of our budget, it’s a drop and I think it would afford them a lot of goodwill in the county,” Schott said.
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