Some 200,000 voters in Broward and Palm Beach counties are receiving mail ballots — some have arrived already — for the party primary contests and nonpartisan elections in August.
People can complete and return them right away, or wait until closer to Aug. 18, though elections officials in both counties warn people not to wait too long because Florida law prohibits counting of ballots received after the deadline. People will decide the Democratic and Republican nominees for governor and U.S. Senate, plus a range of hot congressional, state legislative and county-level contests.
Most notable about the waves of ballots that went out to Broward voters on Monday and Palm Beach County voters on Friday was the volume.
The number of mail ballots requested is down from 2022, the previous primary during a midterm election year, said Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott.
It was obvious Monday at the Broward Elections Office headquarters in Fort Lauderdale when Scott and his staff were done rolling 25 wheeled cages containing outgoing ballots onto a semitrailer for delivery to a U.S. Postal Service distribution center. There was noticeable empty space in the semi.
“We didn’t fill up the truck as much as we’d have in the past, so I’m hoping more, a lot more, people request their vote-by-mail ballots,” Scott said.
Broward mailed out 89,610 ballots on Monday. For the 2022 primary season, Scott’s office said, the agency mailed out 342,829 for the August primary.
In Palm Beach County, Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link’s office mailed out almost 105,000 ballots on Friday and another 7,000 on Monday. In 2022, Palm Beach County issued 350,000 mail ballots.
Though Scott said he’s hoping for a significant increase in mail ballots for Broward voters, he said it wouldn’t match the recent peak. “We’re not going to get those numbers again.”
In 2022, many people still had standing mail ballot requests from the 2020 election, when many people voted by mail to avoid in-person voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those requests have since expired, and many people who voted by mail then now do so in person.
Even before President Trump lost the 2020 election, he’d been casting doubt on the security of voting by mail, which has undermined confidence among some voters. “There’s just been a general attack on vote by mail … so a lot of people now have an unfavorable view of vote by mail,” Scott said.
Before the pandemic, Republicans were the big users of voting by mail. After Democrats started using it more, and Republican voters grew wary, the state tightened the rules.
People must now make a new request for mail ballots each election cycle. Previously they were good for more elections. “Just because you got a vote by mail last election doesn’t mean you’re getting one this time. You actually have to request again,” Scott said.
Under current state law, a vote-by-mail ballot request “is only valid through the next regularly scheduled general election,” Alison Novoa, public information officer and director of strategic initiatives, at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, said via email.
So a request made now is only valid through Dec. 31, 2026, “so a voter wanting to vote by mail for any elections in 2027 or 2028 will need to make a new request,” Novoa said.
Florida law prohibits some of what Trump complains about when it comes to mail ballots, including not counting ballots that are returned after Election Day, and Scott said it is safe and secure.
Ballots only go to people who request them, not all voters. “Nobody who’s not eligible to vote is getting one of our ballots,” he said.
And, Scott said, return envelopes are bar coded and carefully tracked, something the Trump administration wants nationwide.
“Because of the way Florida does vote by mail,” Scott said, “Florida is seen as a model in our policies and procedures and how we do things.”
In a statement, Link said, “Voting by mail is a safe, secure, and convenient option for many voters.”
As part of the security regimen, the truck containing the outgoing Broward ballots on Monday was sealed with a numbered tag. The semitrailer and an SUV with Scott staffers were escorted by Florida Highway Patrol troopers to the Postal Service center in Opa-locka for processing.
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link speaks about vote-by-mail ballots for the 2026 Primary Election at the Main Elections Office in West Palm Beach on Friday, July 10, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The elections office has said previously that state troopers, not Broward sheriff’s deputies, are used because the trucks carrying the ballots cross the Broward/Miami-Dade county line.
The initial mailings, Friday in Palm Beach County and Monday in Broward, are timed according to state law, which requires each county elections supervisor to send the initial batch of mail ballots in a one-week period.
Both counties will continue sending out mail ballots as requests come in.
Returning ballots
Palm Beach County voters began receiving ballots in Saturday’s mail. In Broward, Scott said he expected most of the first round would hit voters’ mailboxes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Even though the Aug. 18 primaries and nonpartisan elections for school boards and judgeships are weeks away, the supervisors of elections urged people not to wait too long to return their ballots.
Florida has a strict deadline. Ballots that aren’t at the supervisor of elections office by 7 p.m. on Aug. 18 aren’t counted.
Postmarks don’t count. In every election, ballots go uncounted because they arrived too late, in some cases more than enough to change the outcome in some races.
An extra 10 days are allowed for military and overseas ballots to be returned and still get counted.
Christopher Foon steers around David Mortin as the two load some of the 105,000 vote-by-mail ballots to be mailed out for the 2026 Primary Election at the Main Elections Office in West Palm Beach on Friday, July 10, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
One reason to allow plenty of time: Some ballots have farther to travel than many people realize, even if they’re not sent in from distant locations.
In 2012, as part of a nationwide cost-cutting move, the Postal Service closed the mail processing centers in Fort Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines and shifted the work sorting Broward’s mail to the Opa-locka center.
Voters in both Broward and Palm Beach counties get postage-paid return envelopes.
If people don’t want to use the Postal Service, or wait until it’s close to the deadline, people can return their mail ballots at early voting sites during the hours the locations are open.
Someone who requests and receives a mail ballot is not required to use it. Voters can still use in-person early voting or vote in their neighborhood polling stations on primary day. Safeguards are in place to prevent someone from voting more than once.
A pallet of vote-by-mail ballots is prepared to be sent out Monday, July 13, 2026, at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections headquarters in Fort Lauderdale. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Key dates
Deadline to register to vote: July 20.
Deadline to request a mail ballot: Aug. 6.
In-person early voting: Aug. 8 – 16. (Broward, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Palm Beach County, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.)
Election Day (Democratic and Republican primaries; nonpartisan elections open to all voters): Aug. 18, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Information
People can check to see if they’re registered to vote, request mail ballots and check their status, and find locations for early voting and mail ballot dropoff online and by phone.
Broward County: www.browardvotes.gov, 954-357-8683.
Palm Beach County: www.votepalmbeach.gov, 561-656-6200.