Vote by mail

Florida House and Senate Republicans could be ready to pass an elections plan that includes creating a new state office to investigate voting irregularities, boosting penalties for wrongdoing, and looking at changes in the vote-by-mail system.

Florida Senate Republicans are revamping a controversial elections bill, including scaling back proposed changes to mail-in voting.

The Democratic state senator has launched a campaign to increase the number of Black and brown voters in Florida who use vote-by mail.

Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to ask lawmakers for more “election integrity reforms” during next year’s legislative session, as he has resisted pressure from within the Republican Party to audit the 2020 elections.

Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, wants to change the law to require every voter to ask for a mail ballot in every calendar year there’s an election.

Although unabashedly supporting the Biden/Harris ticket, the local commissioners insist they want to see every registered voter cast a ballot.

Leon County Elections Supervisor Mark Earley says voters who received sealed ballot return envelopes can request new ones. He says the issue is likely because the envelopes were exposed "to the elements."

The Advancement Project is stressing that voters properly sign and deliver their mail-in ballots after a study found more than 18,500 ballots went uncounted in Florida’s March Presidential Primary. The report was done by the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.

More than 1,000 Leon County voters have already turned in their ballot for the November election. Statewide more than 70-thousand have voted.

With vote-by-mail ballots now being available throughout Florida, the Florida for Biden campaign is urging citizens to vote early and by mail. Democratic candidate for Senate District 3, Representative Loranne Ausley held a presser Saturday to stress the initiative.