Why are people hanging on to their ballots?
Of the 627,484 Miami-Dade voters who had absentee or vote-by-mail ballots mailed to them as of Wednesday, a little more than 142,000 have mailed them back. That means that more than three times as many — a total of almost half a million — are still sitting somewhere on kitchen counters, home desks, nightstands and dining room tables from Homestead to Hialeah.
What are people waiting for? The ballot is not that long, with six state and three county charter amendment questions. Okay some cities have more. Miami Beach voters might take two minutes longer on their six city referendums (more on that later). But we’ve seen way longer ballots. Are people really still undecided on the candidates? There were 12,000 received from Tuesday to Wednesday. Are people waiting for early voting to start Monday so they can turn them in personally? Will there be a big rush after the Oct. 22 presidential debate?
Everybody and their mother is urging voters to turn in their ballots ASAP. It’s on TV, on the radio, in our Instagram ads.
Read related: More than half a mil Miami-Dade vote-by-mail, absentee ballots favor Dems
Voters got a mailer this week from America Votes, a D.C-based 501c4 organization that aims to coordinate progressive groups to promote common issues and increase voter turnout for Democratic Party candidates across the country.
“Voting by mail is a great option — the earlier the better,” it says with cartoons depicting as easy as 1, 2, 3. “Open your vote-by-mail ballot as soon as it arrives,” is step one. “Mail your ballot back right away or drop it in a secure drop box at your supervisor of elections office or an early voting site,” is step three. Their italics, not mine.
Other Florida progressives are pushing voters to return their ballots by Thursday Oct. 15, officially calling it “Return Your Ballot Day.” Join Ladra and mail your ballot then. You can always track your ballot and know when it is received by the supervisor of elections.
It makes sense that progressives are the ones doing the pushing, since President Donald Trump demonized absentee ballots and many Republicans say they are waiting to vote in person. Meanwhile, Democrats are voting by mail in much larger numbers.
Statewide, almost 2 million voters have returned their vote-by-mail ballots and more than 3.7 million still have them, according to daily Florida figures. Of the 1.9 million back already, almost a million are from Democrat voters, while 564,000 are from Republicans and another 364,000 are from independents.
Read related: Miami-Dade mayoral candidates show differences in series of face offs
In Miami-Dade, Democrats are also returning ballots more than two to one, with 72,608 ballots returned as of Wednesday. GOP and independent voters are about at the same pace, with close to 34,000 vote-by-mail ballots returned by each. Democrats also have 212,035 still in their hands while there are 129,203 still in the custody of Republican voters.
Even though there are 486, 687 vote-by-mail ballots that had been provided but not yet returned, Miami-Dade voters can still request an absentee ballot up to Oct. 24. But that’s just another reason why if you already got one, you should return it before that. We don’t want to overwhelm the postal service. With the threat of COVID-19 weighing on voters’ minds, more Florida votes will be cast by mail in this election than any in history. And while voting by mail remains safe, secure and very convenient, the dramatic increase in participation makes returning ballots as soon as possible more important than ever.
In fact, think of the message that might be sent if thousands of voters returned their ballot Thursday, on Return Your Ballot Day?
Miami-Dade voters hang on to half a million ballots they should mail ASAP added by Ladra on
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