Voters, prepare ballots by mail

Election supervisors recommend sending votes early in Florida

With the Democratic presidential race now a clear contrast between moderate centrist Joe Biden and leftist progressive Bernie Sanders, now is a good time for Florida voters to cast their mail ballots for the state’s presidential primary.

By law, mail ballots aren’t due back until 7 p.m. on primary day, March 17.

But to make sure there’s enough time for the ballot to make it through the mail and get into the hands of the elections office — and give elections workers time to reach out to voters who forget to sign or whose signatures have changed — election supervisors recommend acting sooner rather than later.

“I wouldn’t say that time is running out, but early next week the shadows are getting longer,” Broward Supervisor of Elections Peter Antonacci said by email. He wrote that people need to keep in mind that the ballot “must be in the hands of the Supervisor’s office — NOT POSTMARKED — by 7 p.m. on March 17th.”

“If they’re dropping them in the mail, the Post Office tells us we should tell people they should allow at least five days,” said Wendy Sartory Link, Palm Beach County supervisor of elections.

Requests: For anyone who doesn’t want to use early voting or go to the polls on election day — because of coronavirus or any other reason — there’s still a little time to request a mail ballot.

The deadline to ask for a ballot to be mailed is 5 p.m. Saturday, which is earlier than it used to be in Florida. The law was changed to allow more time for people to receive and return mail ballots after problems with the 2018 midterm elections, which included late-arriving ballots not arriving with

enough time to get counted.

People can request absentee ballots online.

Waiting best — until now: Florida voters began receiving their mail ballots a month ago. Until now, the advice for many Democrats was to wait before filling out and returning them. That’s because the list of candidates became official in December — when there were many more candidates in the race.

The Florida Democratic presidential primary ballot has 16 names on it. But only two major candidates — Biden, the former vice president, and Sanders, the senator from Vermont — remain. There’s also one minor candidate, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.

All the other candidates — Michael Bennet, Mike Bloomberg, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, John Delaney, Amy Klobuchar, Deval Patrick, Joe Sestak, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang — are still on the ballot. People can vote for them, and their

votes will be tallied, but they won’t help determine who wins the Democratic nomination.

The reason some Democratic leaders urged people to wait until after Super Tuesday, when 14 states and U.S. territory had contests, is so people wouldn’t waste their votes on people who are no longer in the race.

By Thursday morning, 380,615 Florida Democrats — including 36,416 in Broward and 29,596 in Palm Beach County — had voted by mail, and it’s certain that some of them cast ballots for the 13 candidates who are no longer in the race.

Once a ballot is cast, there’s no way to cancel it and get a new one. (In Michigan, voters can cancel their already voted ballots until just before Election Day and get new ones. One reason that wouldn’t work in Florida is the volume of mail ballots is so heavy that Supervisors of Elections offices are allowed to start opening and processing them in advance, so there wouldn’t be a way to find and cancel an already-voted ballot.)

It’s not a new phenomenon. Every four years presidential candidates get on the Florida ballot and their campaigns tank before Sunshine

State voters get a chance to weigh in. Meanwhile, the elections supervisors throughout the state have collectively printed millions of ballots with names of people who are no longer candidates.

In 2012 and 2016, it affected Republicans, who found many of their candidates had dropped out after people had started voting.

Florida is a closed primary state, so only people who are registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary. Unlike some states, no party affiliation/independent

voters and Republicans can’t vote in the Democratic primary. It’s too late for voters to change parties for the March 17 primary.

Also voting: Regardless of party, all voters in four communities in Broward and 20 cities, towns and villages in Palm Beach County, can vote in local elections.

And Republicans have a presidential primary. There’s no doubt President Donald Trump will easily win the Florida primary and his party’s nomination, but people may also vote for Rocky De La Fuente, Joe Walsh or Bill Weld.

People can also return mail ballots at early voting sites in their counties and at supervisor of elections offices.

Link said people should double check to make sure they sign their ballots. If it’s not signed, it won’t be counted. Signatures that differ from the voter’s signature on file also don’t get counted.

The law requires outreach from election supervisors to mail voters whose ballots have signature problems. That’s why the ballot envelope now has an area where voters have option of listing phone numbers and email addresses.

“We’ll reach them any way we can,” Link said, and tell them how to cure the problem.

People can check the status of their mail ballots by checking the elections office websites.

Information: Voters can get information about mail voting and track the status of their ballots at Browardsoe.org or PBCelections. org and clicking on “vote by mail.”

Broward voters can call 954-357-7050 and Palm Beach County voters can call 561-656-6200.

Antonacci