HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Hillsborough County voters are starting to receive mail-in ballots for the midterm elections, but local turnout numbers show fewer people may vote by mail this fall than in past elections.
The county sent out its first batch of domestic mail-in ballots to the post office on Thursday. Overseas mail-in ballots have already started coming back to the elections office. By Friday evening, the elections office had received about 350 overseas ballots.
Wanda Swift-Wilson is among the 149,000 voters in Hillsborough County expected to receive a mail-in ballot.
“It’s on the way,” Swift-Wilson said.
During the August gubernatorial primary, 91,141 Hillsborough County voters turned in absentee ballots. Four years earlier, when the governor’s race was also on the primary ballot, 122,026 voters cast ballots by mail.
Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer said the decline follows a spike in mail-in voting during the pandemic.
“We had a huge spike during the pandemic, where we had 400,000 that we were sending off mail-in ballots, and it’s steadily dropped off,” Latimer said.
USF political professor Kirsten England said the trend is not limited to Hillsborough County. She said more voters are choosing to cast ballots in person during early voting as mail-in voting declines.
“Currently, if we look at the 2022 primary versus this primary, we’ve seen an increase in early voter turnout and a decrease in mail-in ballots,” England said. “We’ve actually seen that nationwide.”
Swift-Wilson said she began voting by mail during the pandemic and plans to continue. She said she will make a request to the supervisor of elections office each election cycle to make sure her ballot is mailed to her.
Recent changes to Florida law require voters who want a mail-in ballot sent to them to request one each election cycle. England said that could be another reason for the drop in mail-in voting, because some older voters may not know they need to make a new request or may forget.
Latimer said voters who want an absentee ballot can request one online or by calling the elections office. The deadline to request a ballot is Oct. 22.