327,000 vote-by-mail ballots on the way
Election supervisors outline what you need to know
Massive mailings of ballots are going out to Broward and Palm Beach County voters this week.
On Tuesday, two 18-wheel trucks, escorted by three Florida Highway Patrol cars, began the trip from Lauderhill to Opa-locka.
Their cargo: more than 182,000 mail ballots going to Broward County voters, said Brenda Snipes, Broward supervisor of elections. Snipes will accompany the caravan from her voting equipment center in Lauderhill to the Postal Service’s regional sorting facility in Opa-locka.
They should begin arriving in voters’ mailboxes by the end of the week, Snipes said.
In Palm Beach County, 145,000 ballots will be mailed on Friday, Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said.
These are the first, and biggest, waves of ballots for voting on Aug. 28, when Democrats and Republicans have primaries for a range of offices, and all voters can participate in nonpartisan elections for judges and school board members.
In interviews Monday, Bucher and Snipes outlined key things to know about voting by mail:
Return deadline. Ballots must be back at the county elections headquarters by 7 p.m. on primary day; postmarks don’t count. (In Palm Beach County, Bucher has satellite offices that will accept mail ballots until 5 p.m. on primary day.)
Bucher and Snipes said their offices get ballots from the Postal Service up until the cutoff time, but every election some come in late, and therefore aren’t counted.
There is a different deadline for overseas ballots. If they’re postmarked by Aug. 28, they will be counted if they get back to the elections office up to seven days after the election.
Request deadline. There’s plenty of time to request a mail ballot.
You technically have until the county supervisors of elections offices close on Aug. 22, but Bucher and Snipes cautioned that might not allow enough time to receive the ballot and return it on time.
“I wouldn’t do it,” Snipes said about waiting until the request deadline and hoping there’s enough time to receive the ballot and get it returned. She advises people to request the ballot at
These are the first, and biggest, waves of ballots for voting on Aug. 28, when Democrats and Republicans have primaries.
least two weeks before the election.
Turn it and check it. Snipes advised everyone to turn over and examine every ballot page to make sure nothing is missed.
Snipes, a former teacher, also said everyone should read and follow the ballot instructions.
Signatures. A voter’s signature needs to match the signature on file when the person registered to vote.
Someone who thinks their signature has changed can update it with a new voter registration form.
If it doesn’t match — or if a voter forgets to sign the ballot envelope entirely — the elections office will contact the voter asking for an affidavit to be returned with a signature to validate the ballot.
Never mind. If a voter receives a ballot and wants to vote in person at an early voting site or a neighborhood polling place on primary day, that’s allowed.
Snipes said it’s faster if the person brings the ballot so it can be cancelled, but that’s not required. The voter rolls are constantly updated, Snipes said, so if someone shows up at a polling place and has already cast an mail ballot, they can’t vote a second time. And if someone votes in person, the system intercepts the mail ballot.
In-person early voting: It begins Aug 13 in Palm Beach County and Aug. 18 in Broward County. The last day of early voting in both counties is the Sunday before the primary, Aug. 26.
Broward will operate 21 early voting sites, Snipes said. Palm Beach County will have 15 locations, Bucher said.
Mail voting has been gaining in popularity as voters opt for convenience and Florida dropped rules for what used to be called “absentee ballots.” Voters no longer need a reason, such as being out of town on election day, to vote by mail.
But the number of mail ballots going out this week doesn’t necessarily indicate great interest in the primaries, Bucher and Snipes said.
Instead, it’s likely that many of the people receiving mail ballots are a carry over from the 2016 presidential election. Under Florida’s system for mail ballots, requests remain in effect for two years.
That means that people who signed up to vote by mail for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton for president will also get mail ballots for the Aug. 28 primary.