Election officials in several Florida counties are trying to determine why hundreds of voters have faced delays receiving vote-by-mail ballots through the U.S. Postal Service, with Seminole County among those affected.
Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Amy Pennock said her office has issued more than 500 replacement ballots for voters who never received the ones mailed to them. She described one case in which a ballot sent from her Sanford office to a home in Sanford took seven days to arrive. Her office is also fielding at least 20 calls a day, along with a similar number of emails, from voters asking about the status of their ballots. Pennock called it one of the largest problems of this election so far.
Seminole is not alone. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that Broward County Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott has heard from residents about unusually long delays, and said his son's ballot took 12 days to travel from Orlando to the Broward elections office. NPR station WLRN reported similar problems in Monroe County, home to Key West.
The timing is critical. Florida requires vote-by-mail ballots, other than overseas ballots, to reach county election offices by 7 p.m. on Nov. 3. In Central Florida, Seminole appears to be the only county dealing with the problem so far. Supervisors in Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola and Volusia counties told News 6 they were not seeing similar issues.
The cause remains unclear. Pennock said she has not yet spoken with the Postal Service, noting that once ballots are handed over for delivery, her office has no control over them. News 6 has contacted USPS and is awaiting a reply. According to the Sun Sentinel, a postal service spokesperson said no issues or delays were being reported in Broward and Monroe counties and that all mail was being delivered as received. Scott told the newspaper that USPS was not being transparent and was not working with his office as it had in previous years. Central Florida supervisors, however, reported no trouble with their local postal liaisons.
Pennock characterized the delays as a blip in an otherwise busy election season. Turnout in Seminole County stands at 31.52%, ahead of 2022, and the vote-by-mail return rate is 74%, which she said exceeds the totals for the entire 2018 and 2022 cycles.
Voters who have not yet returned a mail ballot are advised that it is probably too late to send it back by mail. They can still deliver it in person, though. Early voting continues through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and most early voting sites in Central Florida have Secure Ballot Intake Stations for dropping off mail ballots. On Election Day, voters must either bring the ballot to the county elections office or surrender it at their polling place and vote a regular ballot. "I would recommend, to make sure your ballot has been cast, that you go vote in person," Pennock said.
Voters who have already mailed their ballots can check Ballot Trax, which most Central Florida counties use, to confirm the ballot has been received and accepted.
Pennock also urged voters to watch for emails, letters or calls from elections offices about problems with their ballots, particularly signature mismatches. More than 300 Seminole County voters have been asked to complete cure affidavits. "All we need you to do is fill out the cure affidavit and provide a piece of identification, and that will allow us to accept your ballot," she said. The affidavit can be emailed to her office, and voters have up to two days after the election to submit it.
