Voters making premature drop-offs
Some South Florida voters are so anxious to follow advice to return their mail ballots quickly — while avoiding the Postal Service — that they’ve shown up at early voting sites hoping to drop off their envelopes.
The problem: The early voting sites aren’t open yet.
Florida law provides for mail-ballot drop off at early voting sites when early voting begins. That doesn’t happen until Oct. 19 in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, the first day allowed under state law.
But in Palm Beach County, one vote-by-mailballot was left in the overnight book depository at a branch library that will be an early voting site.
Until Oct. 19, the Postal Service is the main way to get ballots turned in. A range of experts said there’s still plenty of time to mail a ballot and have it arrive by the 7 p.m. deadline on Nov. 3.
Anyone who wants to avoid the Postal Service but doesn’t want to wait for
early voting has an another option: Drive to the Supervisor of Elections Office, headquarters or branch location, in the county in which they live. There aren’t many office locations: two in Broward and four in Palm Beach County.
When early voting starts, people will be able to drop off their ballots at any of the 22 Broward, 33 MiamiDade or 18 Palm Beach County locations, depending on where they live. All counties’ sites will be open from7 a.m. to 7p.m. through Nov. 1, the Sunday before ElectionDay.
People who haven’t been aware of the deadline have started showing up at early voting sites already, said Steve Vancore, spokesman for Broward Supervisor of Elections Peter Antonacci.
In Palm Beach County, Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said, the library staff called the voter to pick up the ballot left in the depository. When she heard about other people showingupto vote at the library, she had signs made for all early voting sites telling them that they aren’t operating until Oct. 19.