By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
(Source: The Miami Times)
Florida election supervisors are again asking state lawmakers to change state law to make it easier for Floridians to vote by mail, but whether the GOP-controlled Legislature will act on the request is questionable, since they ignored a similar request earlier this year.
David Ramba, representing the Florida Supervisors of Elections, told the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee on Wednesday that supervisors in the state want lawmakers to reinstate the checkbox on mail-in ballot envelopes, an item wiped away by a 2021 election law that requires voters to renew their vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots requests every two years instead of every four years.
As election officials told lawmakers in a similar committee meeting before the 2025 legislative session, the results from two special elections held earlier this year put in stark relief how voters are still not used to the change in law.
Referring to the Congressional District 1 election in the Panhandle, Ramba said there were 98,000 plus VBM requests on file in November 2024, when then-GOP U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz was running for re-election. After Gaetz resigned from the seat and a special primary election was held in January 2025, there were just over 12,000 VBM requests.
Ramba said the same situation took place in Florida’s Sixth Congressional District, where a special election was held earlier this year after Mike Waltz stepped down to serve as Donald Trump’s national security adviser. (He’s now U.N. ambassador.)
“It is a huge expense for our supervisors to go out and then solicit people who want to vote by mail,” Ramba said.
“When they do vote by mail, and we receive your ballot in the November ’24 general election VBM, we are confirming your personal information. We know your address. We sent you that ballot. We do not send ballots out to people who did not ask for them. We have confirmed your signature. We have counted your ballot. We believe there should be the opportunity for that valid voter to — we call it ‘check the box’ — to be able to ask to continue to be on that vote-by-mail list.”
Sen. Tina Polsky, a Democrat representing parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, said it’s become obvious that the law making it incumbent for voters to request a vote-by-mail ballot every two years after an election simply isn’t working.
“It’s not helping the electorate. The supervisors of elections have told us that. The numbers tell us that. All of our constituents tell us that. Every meeting I go to with constituents I end it by saying, ‘You must renew your vote-by-mail ballot,’ because people don’t know,” she said.
“And so we should — we in this committee should look at the data and say, ‘This didn’t work. This was a failed experiment.’ Let’s go back to how it was before with checking the box, because there was no fraud associated with checking the box because of the excellent list maintenance and everything that they do and all of the laws that have been implemented since that time and take a look at that.”
The request was one of just seven that the organization representing Florida’s 67 supervisors of elections made Wednesday to the committee.
Other requests included:
Exempt from public records personal information of election workers as “Critical Infrastructure Assets.”
Have the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles automatically provide the election supervisors the new numbers assigned to the voters who receive a new driver’s license or identification card (the issue stems from a 2024 law that could affect voters’ ability to vote by mail or have their signature on a petition ballot be counted).
Allow a voter now deemed “inactive” to become an “active” voter if he or she signs a ballot petition form.
Give supervisors of election the flexibility to choose different early voting location sites when the the main office is not suitable for early voting.
Eliminating the requirement to place a ballot cast in a provisional ballot envelope if polling hours are extended by the governor beyond 7 p.m. on election night.
Expand the list of offenses involving “critical infrastructure” to include the theft or tampering of election equipment and/or ballots.