Florida law limiting mail-in voting takes full effect this year, elections supervisor warns

Palm Beach County elections officials have begun mailing out ballots to residents who prefer to vote from home. But they are warning that some people expecting ballots in their mailboxes this year may not get them unless they act soon.

A controversial state law passed in 2021 requires Floridians who vote by mail to renew their request for mail-in ballots at least every two years. Previously, people could ask to receive them indefinitely.

This year's elections are the first general election since the law went into full effect.

County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link on Friday announced she had mailed out nearly 160,000 ballots for August’s primary elections, one for nearly one of every five registered voters. But the office will send out more in upcoming weeks, and voters have until 5 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 8 to sign up for one.

“I encourage voters to make their request as soon as possible,” Sartory Link said in a news release. “All vote-by-mail requests expired after the 2022 general election, and the deadline to make a request for this election is 5 p.m. on Aug 8.”

The voting law (Senate Bill 90) says that a voter's request for a vote-by-mail ballot expires at the end of a year when a general election is held.

The bill was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2021, but it allowed existing requests to vote by mail to remain valid through the November 2022 general election, making this year the first general election cycle that the law is in full effect.

The move came amid a wave of unfounded claims by Republicans that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” by President Joe Biden and that stricter election security measures were needed to safeguard future elections.

The law was heavily criticized by voter advocacy groups as a thinly veiled effort to reduce turnout among groups of voters more likely to vote Democratic.

The Brennan Center for Justice called it "an omnibus voter suppression bill that will make it harder for Floridians to vote.” ACLU Florida said it would "force voters to submit vote-by-mail requests more often than is currently required, a completely unnecessary administrative hurdle."

The law faced several legal challenges, and in March 2022 a federal judge ruled some parts of the law unrelated to vote-by-mail ballot violated voters’ constitutional rights.

Kevin Wagner, a Florida Atlantic University professor and associate dean who has written extensively on American politics, said laws that restrict mail-in voting in the name of election security create friction in the voting process that can reduce turnout.

“The more difficult it is for a person to vote, the less likely they are to vote,” he said. “I suspect a lot of people are not going to realize that their mail-in ballot isn’t going come unless they renew it. And that means some people are going to miss the opportunity.”

Voters can request a mail-in ballot by calling the county’s elections office at (561) 656-6208, visiting one of the agency’s offices in person or making an online request at VotePalmBeach.gov . Voters will need to provide a Florida driver’s license, an official state ID or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com .

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida law limiting mail-in voting takes full effect this year, elections supervisor warns