Florida's Primary Voter Registration Deadline Is Less Than A Week Away
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Floridians planning to vote in local primary elections have a less than a week left to register to vote or update their voter's registration information.
Since Florida is a closed primary state, only voters who are registered members of political parties can vote for respective party candidates or nominees during a primary election.
Those who are eligible may register to vote at any time, but they must register at least 29 days before an election to participate in it.
That means voters have until July 20 to sign up or change their party affiliation in order to cast their ballots for the upcoming Florida Primary Election which is August 18.
The easiest way to register to vote is to do it online at RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov.
Due to the continuing COVID-19 crisis in Florida, many voters are opting to cast their ballots during early voting or vote-by-mail in order to avoid crowds and lines at polling places.
EARLY VOTING
State law requires early voting to be held for at least eight days.
In Miami-Dade, early voting for the Primary Election begins August 3 through August 16.
Click here to view the schedule, times, and locations in Miami-Dade
In Broward County, early voting takes place August 8 through August 16.
Click here to view schedule, times, and locations in Broward County.
In Monroe County, early voting takes place August 3 through August 15.
Click here to view schedule, times, and locations in Monroe County.
VOTE-BY-MAIL
Any registered voter in Florida can choose to vote-by-mail.
The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot for the Primary Election is Saturday, August 8 by 5:00pm.
Your county's Supervisor of Elections must receive the ballot by 7 p.m. on Election Day, August 18.
The U.S. Post Office suggests sending your ballot at least a week before the deadline to make sure it gets delivered on time.
You can also drop it off at your county's Supervisor of Elections office.
Nearly 900 ballots had already been cast for the Aug. 18 primary elections from the more than 3.5 million vote-by-mail ballots sent to Florida voters, according to numbers posted by the state Division of Elections.
Of the total, 392 ballots had been submitted by Republicans and 335 by Democrats. Another 20 ballots had been sent in by people registered with minor parties and 120 came from independents.
Florida has 13.7 million registered voters.
Democrats have been provided about 1.6 million vote-by-mail ballots, while Republicans have received about 1.2 million. Another 33,582 have gone to third-party voters, and 677,037 have gone to independents.
Last month, Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee issued assurances about the state's absentee-ballot process. "Our state, I believe, is very well-situated to have a secure and effective vote-by-mail process," Lee told members of the Economic Club of Florida in Tallahassee.
The General Election deadline is October 5, for Election Day on November 3.
- For more voting information in Miami-Dade, click here.
- For more voting information in Broward, click here.
- For more voting information in Monroe, click here.
- For more voting information in Florida, click here.
