{"id":289798,"date":"2026-05-30T04:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/289798\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T04:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:34:09","slug":"bay-areas-mail-in-ballot-requests-plunge-ahead-of-august-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/289798\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area’s mail-in ballot requests plunge ahead of August primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Drop Drop in mail-in ballot requests<\/a> <\/p>\n

Mail-in ballot requests have dropped significantly across parts of Florida ahead of the August primary election. Election officials attribute the shift to a state law change that requires voters to renew their requests. FOX 13’s Blake DeVine reports.<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Mail-in ballot requests have dropped significantly across parts of Florida <\/a>ahead of the August primary election. Election officials attribute the shift to a state law change that requires voters to renew their requests.<\/p>\n

Florida mail-in ballot requests <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

For years, millions of Floridians automatically received mail-in ballots. That changed in 2025, when a new law required requests for mail-in ballots to expire at the end of each election year.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Dustin Chase is a deputy supervisor of elections for Pinellas County<\/a>. He says many voters may not realize their requests are no longer active.<\/p>\n

“One of the big challenges is that people simply aren\u2019t aware that their mail ballot request have expired,” Chase said.<\/p>\n

Mail-in ballot request numbers fall across Bay Area <\/p>\n

By the numbers:<\/p>\n

In Pasco County<\/a>, election officials have received about 22,000 mail-in ballot requests thus far. At the same point in 2024, that number stood at roughly 77,000.<\/p>\n

Pinellas County has also seen requests fall, with mail-in ballot requests down about 45% compared to 2024.<\/p>\n

“We have about 153,000 mail ballot requests on file,” Chase said. “We really need about a quarter million to make voting as comfortable as possible for everyone.”<\/p>\n

Possible Election Day challenges <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County election officials say they’re preparing to notify voters who need to renew their requests.<\/p>\n

FOX 13\u2019s political editor and chief investigator Craig Patrick says the decline in mail-in ballot requests could create challenges.<\/p>\n

“If people don\u2019t realize they can\u2019t get mail-in ballots, it may result in more people lining up to vote on Election Day,” Patrick said.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Patrick believes the lower number of mail ballot requests doesn\u2019t necessarily mean turnout will decline.<\/p>\n

“This is going to be a very energized base on both sides,” Patrick said. “I expect turnout will be equal to the last midterm, if not higher.”<\/p>\n

State election integrity standards <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

Following the 2020 election, voting by mail came under increased scrutiny from President Donald Trump<\/a> and some of his allies.<\/p>\n

When discussing election integrity, Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> pointed to the state\u2019s SAVE Act as a national model.<\/p>\n

“All you have to do is watch these elections,” DeSantis said. “See how Florida performs, and we become the envy of the nation.”<\/p>\n

Election officials maintain that safeguards are in place to ensure ballots are properly verified.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“We\u2019re verifying it every step of the way, and we continue to believe that the process is safe,” Chase said.<\/p>\n

Voting status verification steps <\/p>\n

What you can do:<\/p>\n

Election officials encourage anyone planning to vote by mail in August to check their status and submit a request as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

The Source: \u00a0Information for this story came from statements from the Pinellas, Pasco, and Hillsborough County Supervisors of Elections and previous reporting on FOX 13 News.<\/p>\n

Florida<\/a>Politics<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drop in mail-in ballot requests Mail-in ballot requests have dropped significantly across parts of Florida ahead of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,115,99,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-289798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}