The countdown to Election Day is on, and there are important things to know before heading to the polls.
Mark your calendars for Oct. 7 — this is the last day to register to vote in Florida.
“Know your status. Are you registered?” Christopher Heath with the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office said.
He suggests checking your local supervisor of elections website to make sure.
Heath noted that one of the biggest mistakes voters make is not knowing their polling precinct on Election Day.
You can easily find your precinct in Orange County by entering your name and date of birth on this website.
Vote-by-Mail Options
If you prefer to vote by mail, you can request a mail-in ballot online or visit your local Supervisor of Elections office to pick up a form.
Even if you’ve previously received a mail-in ballot, you must renew your request for each election cycle.
“We’ve been hammering the message really hard,” Heath said. “Going into the primary election, we were out there telling people, ‘If you want to vote by mail, make sure you’ve requested that.’ The law did change, so after every federal election, vote-by-mail requests expire.”
Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Chris Anderson said they’ve noticed a drop in mail ballot requests.
“We don’t have as many requests on file as we once did,” he said.
Some voters weren’t aware of the need to renew their mail ballot requests, but Anderson believes the decline is largely due to the end of the pandemic.
Mail-in Ballot Reminders
If you’re voting by mail, Orange County covers postage costs for mail ballots.
However, Heath stressed the importance of mailing them in on time.
“If you do vote by mail, it has to be in our possession by 7 p.m. on Election Day,” Heath said. “Mailing it to us on Election Day won’t get [it] here in time, and we won’t be able to count it.”
Voters have until Oct. 24 to request a ballot be mailed to them.
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