If your mail ballot is still sitting on the kitchen counter, don't put it in the mailbox. Drop it off.
That's the message from Tampa Bay's elections offices with Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3, the Tampa Bay Times reported. In Florida, a mail ballot has to arrive at the supervisor of elections by 7 p.m. on Election Day, when polls close. If it gets there late, it isn't counted, no matter when it was postmarked.
“Being this close to Election Day, I would urge voters to consider physically returning their (vote-by-mail) ballot to our offices to ensure we receive it by the statutory deadline,” said Brian Corley, Pasco County's supervisor of elections.
Spokespeople for the Hillsborough and Pinellas elections offices said they always tell voters to give the mail at least a week. That window has closed.
Your options
- Use a Secure Ballot Intake Station, the county's official drop-off spots for mail ballots.
- Drop it at any early voting site in your county while early voting is open.
- Take it to the supervisor of elections office.
- Vote in person on Tuesday instead. Bring the mail ballot to your polling place and ask poll workers to cancel it, then vote there.
When early voting ends
- Pasco: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31.
- Hillsborough and Pinellas: 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1.
Locations, hours and directions are on each county's elections website: Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections, Pinellas Supervisor of Elections and Pasco Supervisor of Elections. You can also check there whether your ballot has already been received.
Halloween weekend heads-up
Pasco's last day of early voting is Halloween, and the forecast calls for a chance of afternoon storms Saturday and better rain chances Sunday, the last day in Hillsborough and Pinellas. If you plan to go this weekend, go early in the day.
Planning your Saturday night too? Here's what Tampa police and doctors want families to know.