There is still time to request an absentee/mail-in ballot
Monday was the last day to register to vote for the August 20 primary election, which is also the county election for a lot of races that could be decided by a 50% plus one vote.
According to the Miami-Dade Elections Department, there are almost 1.5 million voters registered in the county. Of those, a majority are still Democrats, with 512,800 compared to fewer than 450,000 Republicans and almost 470,000 NPA or independent voters.
Of the 1.5 million, more than 886,000 are Hispanic, according to the last report by the elections department published at 10:45 a.m. July 1. The department’s No. 2 says we won’t know how many more people registered through the state until the end of the month.
Officials and candidates worry that the turnout will be historically low this year, perhaps under 25%, much of that due to the fact that fewer people have gotten absentee or mail-in ballots, as they are now called. About 215,000 absentee ballots went out to voters on July 11. That number has gone up to 226,000 as of Monday, said Deputy Supervisor of Elections Roberto Rodriguez.
Read related: Fewer absentee or mail-in ballots go out in Miami-Dade for August ’24 primary
“It’s still pretty low compared to four years ago,” added Rodriguez. That’s for sure.
The department mailed out 392,000 absentee ballots for the August 2022 primary. That’s a gap of more than 150,000 voters. In the 2020 primary, the department sent out 332,000 absentee or mail-in ballots. For the November 2020 general, more than half a million mail-in ballots were sent to voters.
Even voters who submitted ABs or mail-in ballots in 2022 have to request it again. Florida legislators changed a law 2022 that caused all vote-by-mail requests to expire on Dec. 31 of that year. In Miami-Dade, 438,000 voters were purged from the vote-by-mail ballot request list.
Everyone had to request one again. And get ready to do it again in two years. Democrats have said this is voter suppression.
Voters who have not yet requested an absentee ballot for next month’s primary have until 5 p.m. Aug. 8 to do so. Here’s how:
- Online via the Elections Department website
- By phone at 305-499-8444
- By mail to 2700 NW 87 Ave., Miami, FL 33172
Voter turnout for Miami-Dade August 20 primary ballot is expected to be low added by Ladra on
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