Hillsborough County sends mail ballots, tests voting machines

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Nearly a dozen pallets of vote-by-mail ballots are on the way to a fraction of the 826,000 registered voters in Hillsborough County.

Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer oversees this process.

“There’s a tremendous amount of checks and balances that continue in this,” Latimer said.

That includes a paper trail and keeping the state, along with the political parties, informed.

Latimer also sits on the canvassing board, which provides oversight and certifies the electoral process. On Thursday, the board oversaw election workers testing the in-person voting tabulators and high-speed scanners used to process vote-by-mail ballots.

State law requires 20% of ballots cast to be placed in these scanners for a post-election audit. Latimer said he does more.

“We put 100% through that audit system. So, every vote that went through the tabulator is going to go through this audit system to prove the accuracy of the ballot or the accuracy of the tabulation,” Latimer said.

If voting by mail is your choice, a 2022 state law tells voters they must request a vote-by-mail ballot for every general election cycle.

If a registered voter has not cast a ballot in person or through the mail in two general election cycles, they’re known as “inactive.”

“You can walk into an early vote site, you can request a vote-by-mail ballot, you are still eligible to vote. That’ll put you back active if you do any of those actions,” Latimer said.

Latimer has a list of crucial dates for all Tampa Bay Area voters: July 22 is the last day to register or change party affiliation before the Primary Election Day. Aug. 8 is the deadline to request a vote-by-mail primary ballot.

He also said he doesn’t want voters confused.

“It continues to be misinformation and disinformation,” Latimer said. “Believe it or not, X, Facebook, and Instagram are not necessarily really reliable sources of information.”

Since this is a primary, some may be confused and assume they can’t vote.

“People of No Party Affiliation say there’s nothing I have to vote on in this election and they are totally wrong,” Latimer said.

In Hillsborough County, Latimer said a public defender will be chosen in the primary, at least two judges, and school board seats if they win by more than 50%.

The primary will take place on Aug. 20.

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