Vote-by-Mail Ballots Now on Their Way to Domestic Voters

Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner will begin mailing
vote-by-mail ballots for the August 18 primary election to stateside voters today, July 9.

A total of 96,761 ballots are scheduled to go in today’s initial mailing, Turner said, with an additional 5,475 to go out tomorrow and 4,516 scheduled for mailing on July 14. More than 1,800 ballots have been mailed to overseas civilian and military voters. To date, the elections office has received more than 108,000 requests for vote-by-mail ballots for the August 18 election, a single-election record for Sarasota County.

A voter may submit a vote-by-mail request online at SarasotaVotes.com/VotebyMail or by calling 941.861.8618. Requests for ballots to be mailed domestically must be received by the elections office no later than 5 p.m. on the 10 th day before the election (August 8) to allow sufficient time for the ballot to reach the voter and be returned to the elections office in time to be counted.

Voted ballots may be returned by mail or in person but must be received by the supervisor of elections no later than 7 p.m. on election day. Voters who return ballots by mail should return them promptly to avoid postal service delays. Voters also may drop their voted ballots into secure drop boxes, located in the three elections offices in Sarasota, Venice and North Port,
during normal business hours (8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday), and at all early voting sites during early voting hours (Saturday, August 8 – Sunday, August 16, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily).

Except for uniformed services and civilian voters living overseas, a voter, who requests a ballot be mailed to an address other than the address on file in the Florida Voter Registration System, must submit a signed written request to the elections office.

Turner reminds voters that the signature on the Voter’s Certificate on the vote-by-mail return envelope will be compared to the voter’s signature on file in the elections office to verify voter eligibility. A voter may update his/her signature by submitting a Florida Voter Registration Application to the supervisor of elections office. The signature on file at the time the elections office receives the voted ballot will be the signature used to verify the voter’s eligibility.