Florida’s primary election is five weeks away, but the deadline to register to vote is one week away — ending July 20.
With the deadline to register to vote fast approaching next week, Supervisor of Elections David Stafford says people should get that done as soon as possible. Also, with the COVID-19 pandemic, mail-in ballots are becoming more popular than perhaps ever before.
But is it safe?
Channel 3 sat down with Stafford who says his team is working to send out upwards of 30,000 mail-in ballots to voters that have requested them. He expects the number of requests to surpass 50,000 with the July 20 deadline.
Although he couldn’t provide any numbers to compare similar prior to the pandemic he says it’s a significant jump.
President Donald Trump raised more concerns over mail-in ballots Friday tweeting that there is fraud specifically with mail-in ballots.
Stafford wouldn’t speak directly to the president’s comments but says in Florida, it’s been done for at least 20 years and the legitimacy of the vote is analyzed closely.
“There is a box on the back of the envelope where they have to sign their signature. And all voters, we have a copy of every voter’s signature when you register to vote. You have to sign an oath and we have a copy of your signature. And what we do is, 100 percent of those ballots that come back, we literally side-by-side will look at the signature on the ballot envelope against the signature on file when you registered to vote or update your signature,” said Stafford.
Stafford adds that signature will be looked at by him, a judge and an Escambia County Commissioner before any decision is made to throw it out. He says the ballots are placed in a secure facility within the already secure elections office and are not open until they are counted or if there’s a recount and must be kept for two years.
What’s most important on the ballot is the red-lined box where you must sign your name.
New this year due to the pandemic, Stafford says everyone’s return postage is paid for.
Stafford says there’s a number of options to register. You can either do it in person or you can do it online on their website. He adds local libraries have applications that you can fill out that will be returned to the elections office.