FSASE News Archive

---

2012

The Benefits of Mail/Absentee Voting

For the 2012 General Election, more than ever before Supervisors of Elections across the state are encouraging voters to vote by mail/absentee. Absentee voting is no longer just for voters who will be out of town during an election. It is ideal for those who prefer to vote in the comfort of their own home, or wherever they are located throughout the world, where they can read the ballot at their own pace.

This can be especially helpful during the upcoming election. With high turnouts expected, and multi-page ballots (including over 2,600 words for the state constitutional amendments), voters who vote absentee will be able to spend all the time they desire to research the issues and avoid the long lines that may occur at polling places.

Every valid absentee ballot will be counted, no matter how close a contest might be. To ensure that an absentee ballot is legally valid, Elections offices verify that the voter’s signature on the ballot return envelope matches the voter’s signature on record from their voter registration form.

Voters who wish to vote absentee have until October 31 to request a ballot be sent to them via mail. After that date, voters can pick up their ballot after requesting one from their local Supervisor of Elections office. All voted absentee ballots must be returned to the voter’s local Elections office by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 6th.

-back to top-

A hot issue in election news this year has been the “non-citizen voter purge” effort in Florida. As county Supervisors of Elections, we agree that clean voter rolls are critical, and just as important we agree that the processes used to update the rolls must be accurate and protect voters’ rights.

For more information on how county elections offices are responding to the issue in general, we invite you to review the memos on our public policy page. We have also provided a sampling of articles from around the web (see below). For details on your county’s process, contact your local Supervisor of Elections.

• Florida finds far fewer ineligible voters than it thought, Tampa Bay Online September 12, 2012
• Lawsuit trimmed after state revises method of identifying non-citizens on voter rolls, PalmBeachPost.com September 12, 2012
• Local Election Officials Wary as DHS Grants Florida Voter-Roll Check, PBS.org July 17, 2012
• Florida gets key data for voter purge, Yahoo.com July 14, 2012
• Florida Will Release Voter Purge List, WCTV.tv July 11, 2012
• Judge declines to stop voter purge; effort could be revived, TheFloridaCurrent.com June 27, 2012
• Florida’s voter purge explained, WashingtonPost.com, June 18, 2012
• Justice Dept. sues Florida over voter purge, CBSnews.com June 11, 2012
• Florida to sue DHS in voter registration battle, TheHill.com June 11, 2012
• Florida defends voter roll 'purge' after protest from DOJ, CNN.com June 1, 2012

-back to top-

Every 10 years, following a census, Florida redraws its political boundary lines in response to population changes. This process, known as “redistricting”, determines representation in the state legislature.

NEWS UPDATE: On April 30, 2012 the U.S. Department of Justice approved State House, Senate, and Congressional redistricting plans. Local Supervisors of Elections can now begin implementing the new districts.
New District Maps and Details

To learn more about the 2011-2012 redistricting process, visit FloridaRedistricting.Org.

Additional reading materials:

Redistricting Time Line 2011-2012 John Guthrie, Florida Senate Committee on Reapportionment (01/12/11)

Redistricting Local Governments in Florida - 2011 Cindy Laquidara, General Counsel, City of Jacksonville (01/12/11)

-back to top-

Five counties in Florida – Hillsborough, Monroe, Collier, Hardee, and Hendry – are “preclearance” counties, meaning election changes cannot be implemented without federal approval. This process, set by the national Voting Rights Act, aims to prevent discrimination in voting.

This March, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) cleared one of four remaining aspects of the new election law passed by the Florida legislature in 2011. The approved provision, which will now be implemented statewide, reduces the shelf life of voters' signatures from four years to two on petitions seeking Florida constitutional amendments. Additionally, each person who signs a petition must provide their home address.

Three provisions are still under review by federal judges:

• Early voting: Reduces early voting from 14 days to 8 and from a maximum of 96 hours to a minimum of 48; eliminates early voting on the Sunday before the election.
• Provisional ballots: Voters who update their addresses at the polls and have moved from a different county since they last voted must cast a provisional ballot.
• Voter registration: Third-party groups that register voters must submit forms within 48 hours, not within 10 days as previously required.

The DOJ recently filed court papers asserting that these provisions do not protect from voting discrimination. Florida’s Department of State expressed confidence that the law was non-discriminatory and would be approved.

If the provisions are not approved before Florida’s August 14th Primary, the five preclearance counties will conduct that election under the old law .

---

2008

New Supervisors of Elections - 2008 Elections