Elections officials in four Florida counties advise returning mail ballots in person ahead of 7 p.m. Nov. 3 deadline

Florida voters still held 602,752 vote-by-mail ballots that had been sent to them but not returned, according to Florida Division of Elections statewide figures compiled at 8:08 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, and covering activity through the day before.¹ Several county elections officials have advised those voters to return the ballots in person or to vote in person. SignalData’s running count of ballots cast is in a separate story.

Under state law, a mail ballot counts only if the supervisor receives it by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Certain overseas ballots are the exception.²

What supervisors have said

In Seminole County, Supervisor Amy Pennock said, “I would recommend you drop it off in person,” WKMG News 6 reported Oct. 30.³ Pennock told the station her office had issued more than 500 replacement ballots to voters who said theirs had not arrived and that one voter waited seven days for a ballot mailed within Sanford.⁴ Supervisors in Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola and Volusia counties told the station they were not seeing similar problems.⁴

Pasco County Supervisor Brian E. Corley urged voters to “consider physically returning” their mail ballots this close to Election Day, the Tampa Bay Times reported Oct. 29. Spokespeople for the Pinellas and Hillsborough elections offices told the paper they always advise allowing at least a week to return a ballot by mail.⁵

In Broward County, Supervisor Joe Scott said, “I urge voters to avoid putting a ballot in the mail,” the Miami Herald reported Oct. 28, and recommended dropping ballots off at an early voting site or voting in person.⁶ Scott told CBS News Miami that a ballot for his son in Orlando “took 12 days.”⁷ Monroe County Supervisor Sherri Hodies told NBC6 her office had run into problems with mail ballots being returned from several other states and said, “we don’t know if it is happening on their side or if it is happening on our side.”⁸

Miami-Dade Deputy Supervisor of Elections Juan Mendieta told the Herald the county had not seen postal delays but still recommended dropping off ballots or voting in person.⁶

The Postal Service response

A Postal Service spokesperson for South Florida, Debra Jean Fetterly, told the Herald that local postal management reported “no delays in our processing or delivery facilities” for Broward and Monroe counties.⁶ Local postal officials told NBC6 the complaints had been sent to the Postal Inspection Service.⁸

Where ballots can be returned

State law requires secure ballot intake stations at each supervisor’s main office, at qualifying permanent branch offices and at every early voting site. Stations not located at a supervisor’s office may be used only during early voting hours, and every station must be monitored in person by an employee of the supervisor’s office while it accepts ballots.⁹ Broward said its stations are at all 30 early voting sites through Nov. 1; on Nov. 2 and 3, ballots must go to one of its seven branch offices. It said mail ballots “cannot be dropped off at Election Day polling places.”¹⁰ Pasco said ballots may be left at its 12 early voting sites or hand-delivered to its three offices, and cannot be turned in at the polls on Election Day.¹¹ Miami-Dade said ballots may be returned to its Doral headquarters or downtown branch office until 7 p.m. on Election Day.¹²

What the records do not show

• None of the supervisors’ own notices that SignalData opened, from Broward, Pasco and Miami-Dade, says anything about mail delays or tells voters not to mail ballots; those statements come from news reports.
• The state figures do not say how many of the 602,752 unreturned ballots are already in the mail.
• SignalData could not open The Washington Post’s Oct. 30 report or a post by Secretary of State Cord Byrd on X about the receipt deadline, and found no Department of State news release about mail delivery.