Latest news with #FloridaSupervisorsofElections
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Election supervisors say verified voters should be able to maintain vote-by-mail requests
The Brief Elections supervisors in Florida are asking state lawmakers to revamp laws surrounding mail-in ballot requests. The current law, passed in 2021, mandates that voters renew their mail-in ballot requests every two years. Officials say that law has led to a big drop in vote-by-mail participation. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A significant decline in mail-in ballot requests is prompting Florida election supervisors to call for legislative changes. Why you should care The decrease comes after a 2021 law mandating that voters renew their mail-in ballot requests every two years, leading to confusion and reduced participation. Speaking before the Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections in Tallahassee on Tuesday, election officials outlined the impact of the 2021 legislation on recent special congressional primaries. In the primary for Congressional District 1, requests for mail-in ballots fell nearly 90% compared to the previous year. Similarly, in Lake County's District 6 primary, there was a 75% decline in requests. The 2021 law requires county election supervisors to purge mail-in ballot requests every two years. Voters must now provide personal identification details, such as a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number, when requesting a mail-in ballot. Previously, voters could opt to receive mail-in ballots for up to four years by selecting a checkbox on their ballot envelope—a feature that has since been removed. The removal of this option has led to widespread confusion among voters, who were unaware of the need to submit new requests. READ: Governor DeSantis unveils $115.6B proposed budget for 2025-26 fiscal year What they're saying David Ramba, representing the Florida Supervisors of Elections, noted that officials have received numerous complaints from individuals surprised by the absence of their expected mail-in ballots. "We've now redone the voting rolls twice," Ramba told lawmakers on Tuesday. "It's extremely expensive and staff intensive to go and recruit and let everybody know and educate them that their vote by mail has expired. So one of our priorities is to advocate bringing back a way to allow for the voter to choose that when they return their ballot." The Florida Supervisors of Elections Association is urging lawmakers to reinstate the checkbox on mail-in ballot envelopes, incorporating the new identification requirements. They believe this change is essential to facilitate voter participation and reduce administrative burdens. "Our theory is if (voters) had the luxury of checking a box in that general election return ballot that said, 'please keep my vote by mail request valid,' Then we could have continued to send them their vote by mail ballot for the special election," said Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays, a Republican. CLICK HERE:>>>Follow FOX 13 on YouTube What's next Election supervisors are hopeful that these proposed adjustments will be enacted during the upcoming legislative session to ensure a more accessible and efficient voting process for all Floridians. The recommendations underscore the ongoing debate in balancing election security with voter accessibility. The Source Information for this story was collected by FOX 13's Matthew McClellan. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida's elections supervisors want lawmakers to reconsider change to vote-by-mail law
Florida's elections supervisors want to change a state law requiring every voter to renew their requests to vote by mail after requests plummeted in last month's two special congressional primaries. In the primary for Congressional District 1 — to replace former Rep. Matt Gaetz — requests for vote-by-mail ballots fell nearly 90 percent compared with the same race last year, supervisors told lawmakers Tuesday. In the race for Congressional District 6 — to replace former Rep. Mike Waltz — requests fell by about 75 percent in Lake County, supervisor Alan Hayes said. The drop-off was a result of a 2021 law passed by Republican lawmakers requiring every county elections supervisor to delete requests for vote-by-mail ballots every two years. It also required voters to provide their driver's license number, state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when requesting a vote-by-mail ballot. Previously, voters could keep getting mail ballots through two general election cycles, or every four years, as long as they checked a box on their vote-by-mail envelope stating they wished to keep doing so. That checkbox no longer exists, and everyone's vote-by-mail ballot requests were deleted after the November election in accordance with the new law. The deletion has caused confusion among voters, including military members, who didn't know they had to submit a new request to vote by mail, officials said. David Ramba, the lobbyist for the Florida Supervisors of Elections, which represents the state's 67 elected elections officials, said officials have fielded complaints from people who don't understand why they were mailed a ballot in 2024 but not in January. The association is asking lawmakers to allow them to bring the checkbox back on vote-by-mail envelopes — but with the personal identifying information required under the new law. Making the change is 'an absolute priority,' Pinellas County Elections Supervisor Julie Marcus said. The county currently has 13,800 vote-by-mail requests on file — a 95 percent decline from the number of ballots mailed to residents for the November election. 'That box worked very well for us,' she said. Supervisors are also asking for changes to voting laws to combat a sharp increase in skepticism and threats by Floridians who believe the state's elections are vulnerable to fraud. Supervisors want to require non-citizens to update their driver's licenses within 30 days when they become naturalized. 'It appeared that we had people on the rolls that were non-citizens, and they were voting, and that's not a good look,' Lafayette County Elections Supervisor Travis Hart said, explaining it was because people's statuses hadn't been updated with the state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Supervisors also want to exempt the personal information of their employees from public records because of the volume and type of threats against them last year. 'People have told election workers, our employees, as they were leaving the office, 'We're watching you, and we know where you live,'' Lake County supervisor Hayes said. 'If that's not intimidation, I don't know what is.' Supervisors on Tuesday also pushed back against a proposal by Gov. Ron DeSantis to dramatically change the process for citizens to amend the state constitution. Instead of signing petitions in parking lots, for example, voters would have to request one through their supervisor's office. Hayes said that would be a 'gargantuan task' for supervisors. A better idea is to have petition organizers mail requests directly to voters, like Smart & Safe Florida has started doing in its quest to amend the constitution to allow recreational marijuana, Hayes said. 'We don't think our county taxpayers need to be subsidizing the services required to try to do a citizen initiative petition,' Ramba said.
Miami Herald
04-02-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Florida's elections supervisors want lawmakers to reconsider change to vote-by-mail law
Florida's elections supervisors want to change a state law requiring every voter to renew their requests to vote by mail after requests plummeted in last month's two special congressional primaries. In the primary for Congressional District 1 — to replace former Rep. Matt Gaetz — requests for vote-by-mail ballots fell nearly 90 percent compared with the same race last year, supervisors told lawmakers Tuesday. In the race for Congressional District 6 — to replace former Rep. Mike Waltz — requests fell by about 75 percent in Lake County, supervisor Alan Hayes said. The drop-off was a result of a 2021 law passed by Republican lawmakers requiring every county elections supervisor to delete requests for vote-by-mail ballots every two years. It also required voters to provide their driver's license number, state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when requesting a vote-by-mail ballot. Previously, voters could keep getting mail ballots through two general election cycles, or every four years, as long as they checked a box on their vote-by-mail envelope stating they wished to keep doing so. That checkbox no longer exists, and everyone's vote-by-mail ballot requests were deleted after the November election in accordance with the new law. The deletion has caused confusion among voters, including military members, who didn't know they had to submit a new request to vote by mail, officials said. David Ramba, the lobbyist for the Florida Supervisors of Elections, which represents the state's 67 elected elections officials, said officials have fielded complaints from people who don't understand why they were mailed a ballot in 2024 but not in January. The association is asking lawmakers to allow them to bring the checkbox back on vote-by-mail envelopes — but with the personal identifying information required under the new law. Making the change is 'an absolute priority,' Pinellas County Elections Supervisor Julie Marcus said. The county currently has 13,800 vote-by-mail requests on file — a 95 percent decline from the number of ballots mailed to residents for the November election. 'That box worked very well for us,' she said. Supervisors are also asking for changes to voting laws to combat a sharp increase in skepticism and threats by Floridians who believe the state's elections are vulnerable to fraud. Supervisors want to require non-citizens to update their driver's licenses within 30 days when they become naturalized. 'It appeared that we had people on the rolls that were non-citizens, and they were voting, and that's not a good look,' Lafayette County Elections Supervisor Travis Hart said, explaining it was because people's statuses hadn't been updated with the state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Supervisors also want to exempt the personal information of their employees from public records because of the volume and type of threats against them last year. 'People have told election workers, our employees, as they were leaving the office, 'We're watching you, and we know where you live,'' Lake County supervisor Hayes said. 'If that's not intimidation, I don't know what is.' Supervisors on Tuesday also pushed back against a proposal by Gov. Ron DeSantis to dramatically change the process for citizens to amend the state constitution. Instead of signing petitions in parking lots, for example, voters would have to request one through their supervisor's office. Hayes said that would be a 'gargantuan task' for supervisors. A better idea is to have petition organizers mail requests directly to voters, like Smart & Safe Florida has started doing in its quest to amend the constitution to allow recreational marijuana, Hayes said. 'We don't think our county taxpayers need to be subsidizing the services required to try to do a citizen initiative petition,' Ramba said.
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida elections supervisors want changes after mail-in voting requests plummet
TALLAHASSEE — Florida's elections supervisors want to change a state law requiring every voter to renew their requests to vote by mail after requests plummeted in last month's two special congressional primaries. In the primary for Congressional District 1 — to replace former Rep. Matt Gaetz — requests for vote-by-mail ballots fell nearly 90% compared with the same race last year, supervisors told lawmakers Tuesday. In the race for Congressional District 6 — to replace former Rep. Mike Waltz — requests fell by about 75% in Lake County, supervisor Alan Hayes said. The drop-off was a result of a 2021 law passed by Republican lawmakers requiring every county elections supervisor to delete requests for vote-by-mail ballots every two years. It also required voters to provide their driver's license number, state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when requesting a vote-by-mail ballot. Previously, voters could keep getting mail ballots through two general election cycles, or every four years, as long as they checked a box on their vote-by-mail envelope stating they wished to keep doing so. That checkbox no longer exists, and everyone's requests for vote-by-mail ballot requests were deleted after the November election in accordance with the new law. The deletion has caused confusion among voters, including military members, who didn't know they had to submit a new request to vote by mail, officials said. David Ramba, the lobbyist for the Florida Supervisors of Elections, which represents the state's 67 elected elections officials, said officials have fielded complaints from people who don't understand why they were mailed a ballot in 2024 but not in January. The association is asking lawmakers to allow them to bring the checkbox back on vote-by-mail envelopes — but with the personal identifying information required under the new law. Making the change is 'an absolute priority,' Pinellas County elections supervisor Julie Marcus said. The county currently has 13,800 vote-by-mail requests on file — a 95% decline from the number of ballots mailed to residents for the November election. 'That box worked very well for us,' she said. Supervisors are also asking for changes to voting laws to combat a sharp increase in skepticism and threats by Floridians who believe the state's elections are vulnerable to fraud. Supervisors want to require non-citizens to update their driver's licenses within 30 days when they become naturalized. 'It appeared that we had people on the rolls that were non-citizens, and they were voting, and that's not a good look,' Lafayette County elections Supervisor Travis Hart said, explaining it was because people's statuses hadn't been updated with the state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Supervisors also want to exempt the personal information of their employees from public records because of the volume and type of threats against them last year. 'People have told election workers, our employees, as they were leaving the office, 'We're watching you, and we know where you live,'' Lake County supervisor Hayes said. 'If that's not intimidation, I don't know what is.' Supervisors on Tuesday also pushed back against a proposal by Gov. Ron DeSantis to dramatically change the process for citizens to amend the state constitution. Instead of signing petitions in parking lots, for example, voters would have to request one through their supervisor's office. Hayes said that would be a 'gargantuan task' for supervisors. A better idea is to have petition organizers mail requests directly to voters, like Smart & Safe Florida has started doing in its quest to amend the constitution to allow recreational marijuana, Hayes said. 'We don't think our county taxpayers need to be subsidizing the services required to try to do a citizen initiative petition,' Ramba said.
