If you think you’re registered to vote by mail in Florida, think again.
Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 90, which made numerous unnecessary changes to Florida’s voting laws to placate Trump’s stolen election falsehoods. Among the anti-democracy changes was a requirement that all Floridians signed up to vote by mail before 2023 be automatically removed from the vote by mail rolls, and a new requirement that forces voters to request a mail ballot every general election cycle.
This means you’re no longer signed-up to vote by mail in the next election, including local elections in many communities this November, until you re-enroll in 2023 with your county Supervisor of Elections (if you already have, great! Share this alert with family or friends who haven’t.)
Studies show that voters who are registered to vote by mail are more likely to cast a vote.
The impact on voting by mail from this new law is already coming into sharp focus: last year, Miami-Dade County had 438,000 mail ballot voters, but as of July 1st of this year, a mere 92,000 voters were enrolled in vote by mail. In Hillsborough County, only 70,000 voters are signed up to vote by mail as of July 1st, down from 320,000 before the new law went into effect. In Broward County, it’s even more dramatic: a recent review confirmed just 35,000 vote by mail sign-ups, compared to 428,000 last year. In Orange County, only 23,000 voters have requested mail-in ballots for the upcoming cycle after 140,000 voters used them in2021.
You can check your voter registration status, including vote by mail sign-up status, at this link.
Florida’s elected leaders should be making it more convenient, not harder, for citizens to participate in our democracy and elections, and Progress Florida will keep fighting to make that a reality. Thanks for being part of our network of concerned and active Floridians.
P.S. You can call the Election Protection hotline (866-OUR-VOTE) if you have questions about signing up to vote by mail.
