LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 With the Aug. 18 Primary Election just weeks away, election officials are reminding voters to make a plan now, whether that means voting by mail, taking advantage of early voting or heading to the polls on Election Day.<\/p>\n
Lee County Supervisor of Elections Jenna Persons-Mulicka said the county is preparing for nearly 500,000 registered voters and hopes to see a higher turnout than in recent primary elections.<\/p>\n
Vote-by-mail deadline approaching<\/p>\n
If you plan to vote by mail, you must request your ballot by 5 p.m. on Aug. 6.<\/p>\n
Lee County has nearly 500,000 registered voters. So far, about 109,000 vote-by-mail ballots have been requested, and about 26,000 have already been returned.<\/p>\n
Persons-Mulicka said voting by mail has become the most popular way for people to cast their ballots.<\/p>\n
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Voters can also track their ballot online to see when it is received by the Supervisor of Elections Office and when it has been counted.<\/p>\n
Completed vote-by-mail ballots must be received by the Supervisor of Elections Office no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day, Aug. 18, to be counted.<\/p>\n
Early voting begins Aug. 8<\/p>\n
For voters who prefer to cast their ballot in person before Election Day, early voting runs Aug. 8 through Aug. 15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.<\/p>\n
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There will be 12 early voting locations across Lee County, and voters can cast a ballot at any of those sites, regardless of their assigned Election Day precinct.<\/p>\n
Election officials say voters can also check wait times online before heading to a polling location, making it easier to choose the most convenient time and place to vote.<\/p>\n
Why this primary matters<\/p>\n
While turnout in primary elections has traditionally been low, election officials say this year\u2019s ballot includes several important local races.<\/p>\n
Turnout in Lee County was about 26% in 2022 and dropped to 23% in 2024.<\/p>\n
This year, there are nearly 495,000 registered voters, including more than 37,000 first-time registered voters since the last major election.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Aug. 18 primary includes judicial races, some school board contests and the Lee County Commission District 5 race. The county commission contest is a universal primary, meaning all registered Lee County voters can participate in that race regardless of party affiliation.<\/p>\n
Persons-Mulicka said she hopes more voters will take part in this year\u2019s election and encouraged everyone to make a voting plan ahead of time.<\/p>\n
Whether voting by mail, during early voting or on Election Day, voters who cast a ballot in person should bring a valid photo ID with a signature.<\/p>\n
Election Day is Tuesday, Aug. 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 With the Aug. 18 Primary Election just weeks away, election officials are reminding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,356,44418],"class_list":["post-357015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-lee-county","tag-primary-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357015","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=357015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}