Florida begins receiving mail ballots as voting gets underway for 2026 midterm election

Florida election officials have begun receiving the first mail ballots for the November general election, kicking off a voting period expected to draw roughly 8 million voters statewide.

About 150 ballots had been returned as of Monday from nearly 200,000 sent last week to military and overseas voters, according to figures from the Florida Division of Elections. 

Florida's deadline for counties to send ballots to those voters was Sept. 19, while ballots for domestic voters must be mailed between Sept. 24 and Oct. 1. Election Day is Nov. 3.

"I encourage voters who are voting by mail to track their ballot and sign up for notifications, so they know when we mail their ballot out and when we receive it back in our office," Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer said in a statement Friday. "Most mail takes about a week to reach its destination."

Hillsborough County sent 2,721 general election ballots to military and overseas voters and plans to mail more than 146,000 ballots to domestic voters on Oct. 1.

Florida mail ballots begin arriving ahead of November election

Early returns show registered Democrats have submitted 63 ballots, compared with 39 from Republicans and 26 from voters without a party affiliation. Democrats have also received more than half of the ballots sent so far, with Broward County accounting for nearly three-quarters of the ballots mailed statewide.

The numbers represent only a small fraction of the ballots expected to be cast. Republicans currently hold a roughly 1.55 million advantage over Democrats in statewide voter registration, while Republicans have historically accounted for a larger share of in-person early voting.

Florida voters can track the status of their mail ballot through their county supervisor of elections. 

Completed mail ballots generally must reach the supervisor's office by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted, although certain overseas ballots have an extended deadline.

How Floridians voted in previous midterm elections

About 7.8 million Floridians voted in the 2022 midterm election, compared with 8.3 million in 2018. Roughly 35% of ballots in 2022 were cast by mail and 29% through in-person early voting. Four years earlier, mail ballots represented about 31% of votes, while nearly 33% were cast during early voting.

The start of voting comes as voting-rights organizations seek to remind Floridians that election requirements for the 2026 general election have not been changed by a new state elections law taking effect next year.

"We are here to tell Florida voters that actually nothing has changed for voting in Florida," Common Cause Florida Executive Director Amy Keith said during a conference call last week. "In 2026, the rules are exactly the same as they were in 2024."

Florida voting rules remain unchanged for 2026 election

Florida's HB 991, signed into law in April, includes changes involving citizenship verification, voter registration and acceptable forms of identification. Most of those provisions take effect Jan. 1, 2027, meaning they will not apply to the November election.

Common Cause Florida, which refers to the legislation as the "Florida SAVE Act," is challenging the law in federal court along with the League of Women Voters of Florida, Florida Rising, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Hispanic Federation and UnidosUS. The groups contend the changes create unnecessary barriers for eligible voters and violate constitutional protections.

Among other provisions, HB 991 establishes procedures for election officials to verify citizenship information through government records and changes some of the identification accepted for voting beginning in 2027. Common Cause says Florida's existing voter identification requirements remain in place for the 2026 election.

Common Cause announced the launch of an election protection effort that it says will mobilize trained volunteers nationwide to assist voters who encounter problems casting ballots.

"We want every Florida voter to know that the best way to protect their vote is to double-check their voter registration status before the registration deadline and by voting early, whether that's by mail or in person," Keith said.

Florida's voter registration deadline for the general election is Oct. 5. 

The deadline to request that a vote-by-mail ballot be mailed is Oct. 22, and the state's mandatory early-voting period runs from Oct. 24 through Oct. 31.