JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — With just a few weeks left until city elections in Jacksonville, many voters may still be deciding how they'll cast their ballot.
A viewer messaged First Coast News that she saw a Facebook post claiming a new Florida law caused all voters to fall off the Vote By Mail register as of December 2022 and that folks would need to request again.
THE QUESTION
Did a Florida law change cause the vote-by-mail list to reset?
SOURCE
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan
Florida Senate Bill 524
THE ANSWER
WHAT WE FOUND
Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law in April with several changes to mail-in voting, including shortening the window for how long a request lasts and requiring more identification to request a ballot.
"I think the real genesis of this is that a fellow in mid-Florida changed the governor's address," said Supervisor Hogan. "When the governor went to vote, they said you're not in this precinct."
Hogan says the old law used to require vote by mail requests every two general elections, but now it's down to one, so all the current requests expired at the end of last year.
"We saw that most of the people had not re-upped," said Hogan. "So, we sent over 100,000 flyers to those people who had not requested a mail ballot for this election."
Once requested, you won't have to again until after the 2024 general election.
Hogan says they've already sent out mail-in ballots for the Jacksonville City elections coming up on March 21st, so if you are expecting a mail-in ballot, you should have received it already.
The Elections Office says they need to receive the request no later than 10 days before the election, which is March 11th, so still plenty of time to request one.
You can request by mail, phone, in-person, fax or online.
You can find more information on requesting a mail-in ballot on the Duval Elections website here.