Although there aren’t any statewide primaries in this year’s election, there are still plenty of local primary races from state house to county school boards.
County election officials throughout the state are reporting a huge drop in the number of requests for absentee ballots, known as vote-by-mail, compared to 2020.
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In South Florida, Broward County is set to mail out more than 200,000 vote-by-mail ballots in front of the Aug. 20 Primary. Miami-Dade County is sending around 215,000 ballots ahead of the August 20th election. Hillsborough County is sending out 150,000 ballots, and election workers in Jacksonville are seeing fewer ballot requests as well.
Explanations for the decline vary by officials and analysts.
Florida Democrats blame Governor Ron DeSantis and the state GOP legislature for putting “restrictions” on voters wanting to cast a ballot.
In 2022, Florida legislators passed an election reform bill to eliminate fraud at the ballot box. Democrats accused the GOP of being obstructionist by requiring new laws on voter I.D. and requirements for voters to update their election information to keep accurate records.
Republicans claim the new law has streamlined the voter roll updating process by purging rolls of those who have passed away, moved, or have not participated in the voting process.
In Tampa, Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer told WMNF that the law is making voter lists more efficient.
“What we’re seeing is that these people basically weren’t here,” Latimer said. “They weren’t living here anymore, they had moved on. Nobody thinks the very first thing they’re going to do when they move is to contact the Supervisor of Elections and let them know”
He says just because voters are declared inactive, doesn’t mean they can’t vote.
“It means they’re going to stay in that inactive status through two general elections. If they do nothing, then they’ll be removed. But anytime during those two general elections, they can walk in and vote, they can request a vote by mail ballot if they sign a petition, any action at all will move them back active again.”
Latimer encourages voters to keep their information up to date.
Some Republicans have admitted the reason why they are seeing a lower amount of GOP supporters not voting by mail, stems from former President Donald Trump accusing the process of being fraudulent and people believing it.
In past elections, Republican voters usually outperformed Democrats on the vote by mail, which helped statewide GOP candidates.
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland noted that while there isn’t a statewide primary taking place, many local races are shaping up. However, he still says voter turnout by mail is way down compared to 2020, just four years ago.
