DORAL, Fla. – South Florida election officials are urging residents who wish to vote by mail to request their ballot if they haven’t already done so.
Robert Rodriguez, the deputy elections supervisor for Miami-Dade County, said the biggest change this election season is that your vote-by-mail request may not be up to date.
“It’s very important, because if you’re waiting for that vote-by-mail ballot and it doesn’t arrive, it’s not because we didn’t mail it to you, it’s because you need to re-request it,” he said.
Rodriguez says the rules have changed.
“On Dec. 31, 2022, we had 438,000 vote-by-mail requests on file,” he said. “On Jan. 1, 2023, we were at zero.”
Those voters now have to request their mail-in ballots after every general election.
“Only 220,000 voters received a vote-by-mail from us this past week,” Rodriguez said. “When compared to four years ago, we sent out 332,000. We’re talking about a difference of almost 115,000 voters that are not going to receive a vote-by-mail (ballot) this year compared to when they received it four years ago.”
This is for several different reasons.
“One, voters don’t know that the law changed and they need to re-request it. Two, voters that still prefer to go back to early voting — because of COVID, they may have requested it beforehand. And then, three, since the election is not around the corner yet, people don’t think about it,” Rodriguez said.
The Aug. 20 primary, though, is around the corner. So is the Aug. 8 deadline to request mail-in ballots.
“Don’t wait until Aug. 8 because the faster we can mail you that ballot, the longer you have to review it, vote it, and then return it to us,” Rodriguez said.
Voters who request sooner rather than later will also have time to correct any issues, should they arise, so that every vote counts.
The elections department says it does notify voters if their requests expire, but it’s up to you to re-request.
REQUEST VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT
For Miami-Dade County, click here.
For Broward County, click here.