\n\t\t\t\t\t\tVoters must drop off mail-in ballots during early voting period if they are not mailing them back. That’s a new law this year — different than during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida when voters could drive through election offices to return vote-by-mail ballots. Also new this election: you can only drop ballots off for a couple of nonfamily members. ELECTION RESOURCES | ID REQUIREMENTS | ELECTION QUESTIONS ANSWEREDState\u2019s election laws have changed The state\u2019s election laws have changed under the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and those changes have led to voter confusion. \u201cI\u2019ve always voted by mail. I\u2019ve always voted,\u201d said Bethany Myers of Orlando, a noted artist in the community. She considers her right to vote sacred, and her attention to detail, when it comes to casting a ballot, as precise as every stroke of her brush on canvas. So, she was stunned when she went online to check her voter registration and election dates. She told WESH 2, \u201cI looked myself up and discovered I no longer had the mail-in ballot voting. It just said nothing. I thought it was shenanigans!\u201d Mail-in ballots must requested every two years Whatever you might think of it, the vote-by-mail law was changed by the governor and lawmakers under Senate Bill 90, passed in 2021. With its passage, beginning Jan. 1, 2023, voters who want to vote by mail must request a mail-in ballot every two years. An easy way to remember it is vote-by-mail requests expire at the end of every even-numbered year. That means Myers\u2019 vote-by-mail request needed to be renewed for this midterm election. Between painting, Myers has been reminding people on social media and telling her friends to verify their voter status and renew their mail ballot requests if that is the way they prefer to vote, in a state where the voting rules are constantly changing. Myers added, \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating to me because I know a lot of people say they\u2019re going to vote, and then something occurs because they didn\u2019t know the date or they didn\u2019t get a ballot in the mail. I just want people to vote. I don\u2019t care who you vote for. Just vote. It\u2019s your right to vote.\u201d Her bottom-line message to every voter is, don\u2019t wait. Check your registration. The deadline to register for the August primary election or change your address or party affiliation is Monday, July 20. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot to be sent to your home is Aug. 6. You can return ballots for immediate family members Supervisors’ offices are training poll workers and staff, making sure they are ready to answer your questions in person, via email and by phone in a matter of minutes. One of the most common questions is: Can I request and return vote-by-mail ballots for other people? The answers: Yes and yes. You can return ballots for immediate family members \u2014 but make sure they sign the ballot envelope \u2014 and you can return them for up to two nonfamily members.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Voters must drop off mail-in ballots during early voting period if they are not mailing them back. <\/p>\n
That’s a new law this year — different than during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida when voters could drive through election offices to return vote-by-mail ballots. <\/p>\n
Also new this election: you can only drop ballots off for a couple of nonfamily members. <\/p>\n
ELECTION RESOURCES | ID REQUIREMENTS <\/a>| ELECTION QUESTIONS ANSWERED<\/a><\/p>\n State\u2019s election laws have changed <\/p>\n The state\u2019s election laws have changed under the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and those changes have led to voter confusion. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always voted by mail. I\u2019ve always voted,\u201d said Bethany Myers of Orlando, a noted artist in the community. She considers her right to vote sacred, and her attention to detail, when it comes to casting a ballot, as precise as every stroke of her brush on canvas. <\/p>\n So, she was stunned when she went online to check her voter registration and election dates. She told WESH 2, \u201cI looked myself up and discovered I no longer had the mail-in ballot voting. It just said nothing. I thought it was shenanigans!\u201d <\/p>\n Mail-in ballots must requested every two years<\/p>\n Whatever you might think of it, the vote-by-mail law was changed by the governor and lawmakers under Senate Bill 90, passed in 2021. With its passage, beginning Jan. 1, 2023, voters who want to vote by mail must request a mail-in ballot every two years. An easy way to remember it is vote-by-mail requests expire at the end of every even-numbered year. That means Myers\u2019 vote-by-mail request needed to be renewed for this midterm election. <\/p>\n Between painting, Myers has been reminding people on social media and telling her friends to verify their voter status and renew their mail ballot requests if that is the way they prefer to vote, in a state where the voting rules are constantly changing. <\/p>\n Myers added, \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating to me because I know a lot of people say they\u2019re going to vote, and then something occurs because they didn\u2019t know the date or they didn\u2019t get a ballot in the mail. I just want people to vote. I don\u2019t care who you vote for. Just vote. It\u2019s your right to vote.\u201d <\/p>\n Her bottom-line message to every voter is, don\u2019t wait. Check your registration. The deadline to register for the August primary election or change your address or party affiliation is Monday, July 20. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot to be sent to your home is Aug. 6. <\/p>\n You can return ballots for immediate family members<\/p>\n Supervisors’ offices are training poll workers and staff, making sure they are ready to answer your questions in person, via email and by phone in a matter of minutes. <\/p>\n One of the most common questions is: Can I request and return vote-by-mail ballots for other people? <\/p>\n The answers: Yes and yes. You can return ballots for immediate family members \u2014 but make sure they sign the ballot envelope \u2014 and you can return them for up to two nonfamily members. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters must drop off mail-in ballots during early voting period if they are not mailing them back. That’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22439,139750,112896,15025,2811,140497,87272,28,30,29,47145,13958,140498,15880,22312,140499,40972,992,99,914,139751,93749,16663,14258,918,164],"class_list":["post-342255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-ballot","tag-bethany-myers","tag-commitment-2026","tag-deadline","tag-election","tag-election-law","tag-election-office","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-voter","tag-friend","tag-immediate-family-member","tag-mail","tag-mail-in-ballot","tag-nonfamily-member","tag-nursing-home","tag-people","tag-politics","tag-state","tag-vote-by-mail-ballot","tag-vote-by-mail-request","tag-voter","tag-voter-registration","tag-wesh","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342255","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=342255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}