This year Florida voters will have more options for ID at the polls. That could be important with a contentious presidential race increasing turnout.
Under new legislation, voters will be able to use a concealed weapons permit or a veteran’s health card as identification when they cast their ballots. Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho welcomes the change and says it could be helpful for voters who don’t normally participate.
“I think one of the things that we’re seeing this year because of the high interest is a number of people showing up or wanting to vote that have not voted in a long time,” Sancho says. “What we need from those individuals are their address updates.”
Over the weekend, Sancho’s office was working to get those updates at Springtime Tallahassee. Sancho says his team was able to add more than a hundred people to the voting rolls which is more than usual.
“We collected 120 voter registration forms at Springtime Tallahassee and it’s the 28th year that we’ve been doing that,” Sancho says. “And I will tell you that the 120 forms is up over the last few years. Probably indicative, I’m sure, of the interest that we’re seeing in the presidential race this year.”
With the presidential race bringing sometimes apathetic voters into the pool of likely voters, Sancho says additional identification could alleviate election day headaches. The next time Floridians head to polls is a primary election in August for local and state offices.
