ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Another election season is underway, and with it comes many myths and conspiracy theories about the whole process.<\/p>\n
Things like:<\/p>\n
If you leave a race blank on your ballot, your whole ballot won\u2019t count.<\/p>\n
If you wear campaign shirts or hats to the polling place, you\u2019ll be turned away.<\/p>\n
Florida is purging Democrats from voter rolls<\/p>\n
[ELECTION 2026: Everything thing you need to know to vote<\/a>]<\/p>\n New myths and half-truths seem to pop up every election cycle. Some of them stem from the fact that each state has different election rules and people don\u2019t realize what may be true in one state is not true in another.<\/p>\n Some of them are malicious attempts to cause trouble and even stop people from voting.<\/p>\n Here is the truth about some of the top voting myths in Florida. Special thanks to Lake County Elections Supervisor Alan Hays, who checked our work.<\/p>\n NOTE: The following is definitely the case in Florida, but may be different in other states.<\/p>\n \u201cWho is allowed to vote?\u201d myths<\/p>\n (1) MYTH: If you don\u2019t vote in every election, you will lose the right to vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: You do not have to vote in every election. County elections officials might mark your registration as inactive if you fail to vote in two federal elections and then don\u2019t contact the elections office to confirm your address. But even then, an inactive voter just has to make that contact and they will be allowed to vote. They can even do it at the polls on Election Day. If you are marked as an inactive voter and then don\u2019t vote in the next four years (two general elections), then your registration is canceled. But even then, you just have to reregister.<\/p>\n (2) MYTH: Florida is purging Democrats from voter rolls.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: This one is popping up in a big way in the last few months. It\u2019s not true, and it has to do with conflating the Active Voter Data and the actual voter rolls in Florida.<\/p>\n Florida posts a summary of active registered voter data on the Division of Elections website by party<\/a>. This data shows that the number of active registered Democratic voters is dropping. In fact, Florida lost a million active voters total.<\/p>\n However, the state does not share data on voters who are labeled \u201cinactive\u201d by party. And if you look at the actual voter rolls (available upon request from the Division of Elections), you will see that inactive voters are still listed on the voter rolls. However, they will not count on an active voter tally.<\/p>\n And again, all it takes to go from an inactive voter to an active voter is to contact your county election office.<\/p>\n The state changed the process for doing voter maintenance in 2022 and 2023, and that largely accounts for the large number of voters labeled inactive, because local election officials are required to conduct maintenance more often.<\/p>\n A recent News 6\/WJXT analysis of January 2026 voter roll data found 1.3 million inactive voters in Florida, including: <\/p>\n NPA voters: 501,536<\/p>\n Democratic voters: 462,008<\/p>\n Republican voters: 329,577<\/p>\n However, the Florida Democratic Party has been losing voters steadily since 2020, as News 6 showed in an analysis of voter roll data.<\/a> Many of these voters are moving to another party, or to no party affiliation, or leaving the state.<\/p>\n (3) MYTH: If you don\u2019t speak English, you can\u2019t vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: In Florida, counties are required to publish ballots in English and Spanish. Ballots may be available in other languages, depending on U.S. census data. If you need language assistance, you can contact your county supervisor of elections office for help. You can also bring someone to the polling place to help you with your ballot.<\/p>\n (4) MYTH: Foreigners with legal U.S. residence can vote in elections.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Only U.S. citizens, either by birth or naturalization, may vote in elections in Florida.<\/p>\n (5) MYTH: Puerto Ricans cannot vote because they are not U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: As Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. If someone from Puerto Rico moves to Florida, they will be able to register for and vote in Florida elections without needing to do anything extra. This is true for other U.S. territories as well.<\/p>\n (6) MYTH: If you are homeless, you can\u2019t vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: If you have an effective mailing address where you can receive messages, and plan to stay in that area, you can be assigned a voting precinct. Check with your county supervisor of elections for help.<\/p>\n (7) MYTH: If your home is in foreclosure, you can\u2019t vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: If you are still living in the house, whether it\u2019s in foreclosure doesn\u2019t matter, you can still vote. If you are not living in the house, you need to change your address, but that will not stop you from voting.<\/p>\n (8) MYTH: If you\u2019re a student, you need to make your college address your permanent address to vote in Florida.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: If you\u2019re away at school, you only need to change your permanent address if that is where you wish to vote. If you want to leave your home as your permanent address, you can do that. But you must either travel to your home precinct or request a vote-by-mail ballot in order to vote, and you will vote in whatever elections are set for that address.<\/p>\n (9) MYTH: Students who vote in an election could see their college financial aid affected.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Voting will not affect any federal financial aid. You should check with your scholarship administrator, though, to see if changing your voter registration will affect the status of a scholarship that is location-based.<\/p>\n (10) MYTH: Convicted felons cannot vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Nonviolent convicted felons can have their voting rights in Florida automatically restored if they completed their sentences, which includes all prison or parole time and any and all court fees or monetary payments. Other felons must have their voting rights restored by the state clemency board.<\/p>\n However, this information has proved difficult for convicted felons to pin down and has led to arrests. There is also a lot of confusion and delays in the state confirming whether a former felon can register. If you are a returning citizen who wishes to vote, be sure to talk to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.<\/a> They can help you make sure you are eligible to register to vote or to vote.<\/p>\n (11) MYTH: If you owe back child support or have outstanding warrants, you can be arrested if you try to vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Voter rolls have no information about such matters and law enforcement officers are not supposed to enter a polling place unless summoned by poll workers.<\/p>\n (12) MYTH: If you own homes in more than one state, you can vote in each state.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: We don\u2019t know if it qualifies as a real myth, but we do know it\u2019s something that happens. How do we know? We\u2019ve seen the ballot with our own eyes. <\/p>\n Two write-in votes for “Voted for Trump in NJ” in the 2024 election. (Orange County Supervisor of Elections office)<\/p>\n In 2024, News 6 requested the lists of write-in votes from all of Central Florida\u2019s counties. <\/a>We found the two write-ins in the picture above in the list from Orange County. Those votes don\u2019t count, obviously. Only registered write-in candidates can get valid votes.<\/p>\n But whoever voted on these ballots may have voted for other races on those ballots \u2014 senator, U.S. representative, and constitutional amendments. <\/p>\n Does it matter that the races are not the same as the ones on the ballot in New Jersey?<\/p>\n \u201cNo one is legally allowed to vote in more than one state, period,\u201d said Lake County Elections Supervisor Alan Hays. It makes no difference if they own homes in several states, they are allowed to vote only in the state of their legal residence.”<\/p>\n In fact, people found to have voted in more than one state have been prosecuted, like this resident of The Villages<\/a>, who was found to have voted in Connecticut and Florida in 2020.<\/p>\n Voter ID and Registration Myths<\/p>\n (13) MYTH: You must have a Florida driver\u2019s license in order to vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: You need a form of identification in order to vote with a picture and a signature. It does not need to be a Florida driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n The following forms of picture identification are allowed if they are current and valid:<\/p>\n Florida driver\u2019s license<\/p>\n Florida identification card issued by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles<\/p>\n United States passport<\/p>\n Military identification<\/p>\n Student identification<\/p>\n Retirement center identification<\/p>\n Neighborhood association identification<\/p>\n Public assistance identification<\/p>\n (14) MYTH: You must have your voter identification card with you in order to vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: When you register to vote in Florida, you will get a voter information card. It is not a voter identification card, and it is not required at the polling place. It can\u2019t even be used as a form of identification in order to vote. The only purpose is to verify your information and let you know your polling place and district assignments.<\/p>\n (15) MYTH: If you move, your voter registration moves with you.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: You need to update your voter registration if you move. If you move within the county or to a different county within the state, you need to change your address with the local supervisor of elections office. This is so that you have updated polling precinct information. It also changes who your representatives in government are.<\/p>\n If you are moving from outside the state, you need to register to vote in Florida. Your registration doesn\u2019t transfer when you leave the state. Go to Florida\u2019s voter registration website to learn more.<\/a><\/p>\n Ballot Myths<\/p>\n (16) MYTH: You can call, text or email in your vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: You cannot do any of these things. You can only vote in person or send your vote via regular mail.<\/p>\n (17) MYTH: If you voted in a primary, you can\u2019t vote in a general election. <\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Primaries and general elections are two separate elections. In Florida, we may have elections at any time during the year. You are permitted to vote for any and all elections in which you are in the proper jurisdiction, be it a local election, a state election or a federal election. <\/p>\n Remember, for each election, one ballot, one person, one vote. FOR EACH ELECTION. You do not have to save your vote (we\u2019ve heard\/read people saying this) for more important elections. <\/p>\n (18) MYTH: The position of the candidates on the ballot shows favoritism to one political party over another.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: In Florida, the order of candidates on the ballot is determined by whichever political party won the last gubernatorial election. Since Gov. DeSantis is a Republican, Republican candidates will be the first names in each race on the ballot, followed by Democrats, then minor party candidates, then no party affiliation candidates, then a spot for write-in candidates, if any.<\/p>\n (19) MYTH: If you are a member of a political party, you can only vote for candidates from that party.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: The only time your political party matters in an election is during a party primary. In nonpartisan and general elections, you can vote for whoever you want, regardless of party.<\/p>\n (20) MYTH: You have to vote for candidates of the same political party in each race on your ballot.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: This concept is called straight-ticket voting. You can absolutely do that if you want, and many people do. But if you ever thought you had to vote for only Republicans or only Democrats, you don\u2019t. You can\u2019t do split-ticket voting, where you vote for people from different political parties. <\/p>\n Split ticket voting was far more prevalent in the 20th century, according to a report by the Brookings Institute<\/a>. For instance, in 1972, voters in 44% of Congressional districts split their vote between the presidential and U.S. House candidates. <\/p>\n In 2024, it\u2019s believed only 4.9% of Democrats, 4.9% of Republicans, and 9.7% of independents split their vote.<\/p>\n (21) MYTH: If you make a mistake on your ballot, you can\u2019t change it.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: As long as you have not turned in your ballot, if you make a mistake, you can exchange it for a new one. This includes mail-in ballots. You are allowed up to three ballots total, though, so try not to mess up on ballot number 3.<\/p>\n (22) MYTH: If you leave a race blank on your ballot, your whole ballot won\u2019t count.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: You do not have to vote on every race on the ballot. If you vote on only one race, that vote will count.<\/p>\n (23) MYTH: You can write in any name on your ballot and your vote will count toward that person.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Every year, there are lots of votes for Mickey Mouse. None of those votes count toward anything. In Florida, only write-in candidates who are registered as such with the state will have any write-in votes for their name count. To our knowledge, Mickey Mouse has never been a candidate for political office in real life.<\/p>\n (24) MYTH: Early votes and vote-by-mail ballots only count in close races.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: In Florida, early votes and vote-by-mail ballots are among the first to be counted and are just as important as Election Day votes.<\/p>\n (25) MYTH: Provisional ballots only count in close races.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Provisional ballots are merely ballots that require extra scrutiny from the county canvassing board, but if they are approved, they are counted as regular ballots toward the vote total. Anyone who is challenged should request a provisional ballot, fill it out and turn it in. They have two days after the election to get the additional documents to the elections office, so your vote can be counted.<\/p>\n [WATCH: Ballot processing cameras to provide election transparency for Orange County voters (from 2024)]<\/p>\n (26) MYTH: Hackers can change votes\/tech moguls used internet satellites to change votes.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Florida\u2019s voting system is highly decentralized and localized. Florida election officials say the system is designed to make it impossible for hackers to change votes. The voting machines in each precinct are not even hooked up to the internet during the day, and results are only specially transmitted via secure connection when ready.<\/p>\n Vote by Mail Myths<\/p>\n [WATCH: New form for requesting vote-by-mail ballots (from 2024)]<\/p>\n (27) MYTH: Vote-by-mail ballots and absentee ballots are not the same thing.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Some candidates in the 2020 election tried to confuse voters about these terms. But let\u2019s be clear: In Florida, we have vote-by-mail ballots. We used to call them absentee ballots, but we changed the name years ago. Nothing about the ballots changed other than the name. They were the same thing in Florida.<\/p>\n (28) MYTH: You have to have a reason to vote by mail.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: This might be true in some states, but it is not the case in Florida. All you have to do is request a ballot from your county supervisor of elections office. You don\u2019t need a specific reason to vote by mail.<\/p>\n (29) MYTH: You can only return your own vote-by-mail ballot.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: In the state of Florida, you are legally allowed to drop off your ballot, your family members\u2019 ballots, and the ballots of up to two non-family members.<\/p>\n (30) MYTH: If you do not have enough postage on your vote-by-mail return envelope, it will not be delivered.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Many Central Florida counties already offer a return postage-paid envelope for vote-by-mail ballots. However, if you are in a county where you must pay for postage to mail in a ballot, and you did not get sufficient postage, any postage due charges will be billed to your county\u2019s elections office and your ballot will still be delivered.<\/p>\n (31) MYTH: Vote-by-mail ballots can be falsified and sent in to benefit a candidate.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: In Florida, there are systems in place to prevent ballot stuffing with vote-by-mail ballots. County elections offices have ways to tell how many ballots are issued and how many ballots are returned, and what ballots there are. Ballots are individually coded to the voter. Once a ballot is accepted, that voter\u2019s vote is counted. Only one vote gets counted in the system. So you can\u2019t just order a bunch of vote-by-mail ballots from, say, China, and mail them in.<\/p>\n Polling Place Myths<\/p>\n (32) MYTH: Anyone can stop you from voting.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: There are poll monitors who can challenge your vote. But they cannot make frivolous challenges, and in fact, can be fined for doing so. Moreover, even if your vote faces a challenge, you will be given a provisional ballot, which the county elections office will check against your records to make sure you are allowed to vote.<\/p>\n (33) MYTH: The polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day and if you are still in line, you won\u2019t be allowed to vote.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: As long as you are standing in line to vote at a polling place by 7 p.m. on Election Day, you will be allowed to vote. Polling places must allow everyone in line the chance to vote.<\/p>\n (34) MYTH: No one can be at the voting booth with you, including children.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: As long as you are the only person voting, you can take children into the voting booth. You can also have adults in the voting booth, but they must be there to assist you in voting because of a disability or an inability to read or write. You must let the person know ahead of time, and both you and the helper will be required to fill out affidavits affirming this. <\/p>\n (35) MYTH: You can\u2019t take any materials with you to the voting booth.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: County supervisor elections offices send out sample ballots so you can make your choices ahead of time. You can also take election guides, sample ballots and any other materials you need to make an informed decision.<\/p>\n (36) MYTH: You can\u2019t take any pictures in the voting booth.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: The Florida Legislature now allows voters to take pictures of their ballot \u2013 and only their ballot \u2013 in the voting booth. No ballot selfies.<\/p>\n (37) MYTH: If you wear campaign shirts or hats to the polling place, you\u2019ll be turned away.<\/p>\n THE TRUTH: Go ahead and wear your campaign buttons and shirts and hats. As long as you are not actively campaigning, you are allowed to wear your campaign memorabilia to the polling place.<\/p>\n (38) MYTH: ICE\/law enforcement can detain you at a polling place. <\/p>\n THE TRUTH: First, a reminder that only citizens are allowed to vote in an election in Florida. <\/p>\n Having said that, it is a federal crime for federal troops or armed law enforcement <\/a>to be deployed to polling places. It is also a federal crime for anyone, including federal agents, to intimidate voters<\/a>. <\/p>\n The Voting Rights Act of 1965 <\/a>also outlaws voter intimidation.<\/p>\n There are no emergency powers that would allow the U.S. president to override those laws either \u2014 not even the Insurrection Act.<\/a><\/p>\n