"Local news worth reading" — The New York Times
SUBSCRIBE
The independent voice for West Orange County news
On Friday, the Orange County Supervisor of Elections will send out the 106,000 vote-by-mail ballots that have been requested for the midterm elections. Ballots will start landing in voters’ mailboxes sometime early next week, and that means … this election is about to get real.
Whether you choose to vote by mail, vote early or vote on Election Day … whether you need assistance because English isn’t your first language or you need a voting station that will accommodate a motorized scooter or vision impairment, here's the information you’ll need to make your voice heard and your vote count during this election.
Let’s start with the obvious. You need to be a registered voter in order to vote. The qualifications are fairly straightforward: 1) U.S. citizen. 2) Florida resident. 3) At least 18 years old. (In Florida, teens can pre-register at 16, and their voter registration card will be sent to them when they turn 18.)
You have until Oct. 5 to register to vote or make changes to your registration, say, if you moved recently, changed your name or want to switch parties. You can make these changes at several places: Department of Motor Vehicles/Tax Collector offices; Orange County libraries; Center for Independent Living; Department of Children and Family Services/Women Infants and Children’s locations and the Supervisor of Elections offices, both downtown and the new satellite office at the West Oaks Mall in Ocoee.
Even if you’re already registered, it's a good idea to check to be certain that the information on your registration is active. And if you received a new driver’s license number or state ID number since you registered, the Florida Division of Elections recommends contacting the Supervisor of Elections to ensure your voter record has the new number.
Sure, the elections office just mailed out a bunch of ballots, but that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. You can request a mail-in ballot until 5 p.m. on Oct. 22. And if you haven’t voted since the 2024 elections, you will need to request another one since mail-ballot requests expire after each federal election cycle. (If you voted by mail in any of last year's special elections or this year's municipal elections, your mail ballot request may still be on file, especially if you checked "all elections" when you made your request.)
The Supervisor of Elections has several ways to request your ballot: Call the office at 407-836-VOTE (8683). Visit the site or download and complete the Vote-By Mail Written Request Form (in Spanish). Then, either email the form to vbmrequest@ocfelections.gov; send it back by fax (407-254-6577); mail it to P.O. Box 562001, Orlando, FL 32856-2001; or drop it off at the Supervisor of Elections office at 119 Kaley Street, Orlando or the new satellite office at the West Oaks Mall.
Once the ballots are out, you can pick one up at the Supervisor of Elections office or the new West Oaks Mall satellite office. Or designate someone to pick up a ballot for you, using a designee pick-up form and affidavit.
After you vote, there are several ways to return your ballot apart from dropping it into a mailbox. (If you do mail it, Common Cause Florida recommends doing so at least two weeks before Election Day to make sure your ballot reaches the Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on Nov. 3.) You can drop your ballot in a secure drop box at any of Orange County’s 27 early-voting sites, the Supervisor of Elections office or the new West Oaks Mall satellite office. The West Oaks Library in Ocoee even offers drive-thru drop off. As long as you're going, you can also take ballots for two additional family members or one ballot for a friend.
If you decide you'd prefer to vote in person, you can trade your mail-in ballot for a regular in-person ballot at any early voting site. If Nov. 3 rolls around and you’re still holding onto your mail-in ballot, vote the ballot and drop it off at the main Supervisor of Elections office on Kaley Street by 7 p.m. so it’s sure to be counted. Florida has no grace period, and the main elections office will be the only place accepting mail ballots on Election Day.
Finally, to receive email or text updates about the status of your ballot from printing to mail-out to acceptance, sign up for BallotTrax.
Mismatched signatures are one of the primary reasons mail-in ballots don't get counted. Signatures can change over time: an injury, a medical condition. Or maybe you simply stopped dotting your I’s with little hearts. Whatever the reason, you can update your signature if necessary by filling out a voter registration form (in Spanish) checking the box “Update or Change,” and then submitting it to the elections office. When voters forget to sign the mail ballot’s outer envelope or election officials have questions about a signature, they make an effort to contact voters. Voters will have two days — until 5 p.m. on Nov. 5 — to submit an affidavit and identification to “cure” or fix the signature issues.
As Tim Bobanic, Brevard County Supervisor of Elections, said last week at a voting preparation press conference at the Orange County elections office, “Election Day is your last chance to vote.”
Meanwhile, there are 14 days of early voting. You can vote at any of the 27 early voting locations throughout Orange County, open daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., from Oct. 19 through Nov. 1. In West Orange County, there are three early voting sites: West Oaks Library in Ocoee and the Orange County National Golf Center and Winter Garden Library in Winter Garden.
During early voting, you can vote at any early voting site in Orange County. But on Election Day, you must vote at your designated polling place.
Last year, the county went through a mid-decade redistricting process, creating Districts 7 and 8. The mapmakers maintained as many voting precincts as possible, but some have changed. In West Orange County, the change affects voters in Precinct 109. Instead of voting at Lake Whitney Elementary School, the new polling location is Windermere Seventh Day Adventist Church at 4100 McKinnon Road.
The Orange County Supervisor of Elections mailed out new voter information cards with updated precinct information. You can look up your precinct and poll location here.
By now it’s not news that you need a photo ID to vote. But with the state Legislature’s passage of the Florida SAVE Act there’s been discussion about the kind of IDs that will no longer be accepted — debit/credit cards; student-, retirement-center and neighborhood-association IDs. However, those rules don’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2027, so none of that applies to the 2026 midterm elections.
For the midterm elections, all of these IDs will continue to be accepted:
If you don’t have the accepted forms of ID, the folks at VoteRiders can help with ordering the required documents, like birth certificates and social security cards, needed for a driver’s license or state ID.
Ballots can be dense and complicated, especially with three amendments and a school board tax question to vote on. So if English is not your first language, ask if there’s a ballot printed in your native tongue. The Orange County Supervisor of Elections has ballots in seven other languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Vietnamese, Hindi, Filipino and simplified Chinese. You can also bring a translator with you, according to the ACLU Florida.
It’s also permitted to have someone with you in the voting booth or at the voting stand if you need extra assistance because of a disability, vision impairment or illiteracy. This can be a pal, a family member, even poll workers (up to two) can assist. The only folks who can’t, according to state law and the federal Voting Rights Act, are your employer and union officials. Even if you’ve got the nicest boss in the world, their help could be construed as influencing you to vote a certain way.
Polling locations are required to have an ADA-compliant voting machine, accessible while seated, that can provide braille, enlarged type, audio, to assist voters in marking their ballots. (Pro tip: Phone ahead to ensure it’s working.)
People with disabilities filling out their ballots at home, in assisted living facilities or nursing homes can request to fill out their ballots via Omniballot, a web-based ballot-marking and submission system developed by DemocracyLive and approved for use in 34 states, including Florida. Call the Supervisor of Elections at 407-836-2070 or email vbmrequest@ocfelections.gov for more information.
No wheels? If you’re stuck without a ride, you do have options. Ride-share company Lyft is offering a 50-percent discount (about $10, the company says) on its rides to the polls on Nov. 3, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., through its 2026 Voting Access Program. Lyft describes transportation as an “overlooked barrier to voting” and cites research on the 2018 election from Harvard and Boston Universities that found people with vehicles voted at a rate that’s 30 percentage points higher than those who didn’t have transportation. Just preload “VOTE26” into the app before Nov. 3. The company says the discount is good for one ride with a car, bike or scooter.
Run by volunteers, the nonprofit Rideshare2Vote provides free rides to the polls in 18 states, including Florida. Android users can download the app on Google Play (though users complain it’s buggy). There’s also a web form to fill out or you can call 888-977-2250. The company’s website states that their goal is to boost Democrat turnout. But in a Thursday phone call, a company rep assured VoxPopuli that if a voter from another party called seeking a ride to the polls, they would drive them.
Former felons, or returning citizens, (except those convicted of murder or felony sex offenses) who have completed their sentences, parole, probation and paid their fines and fees (or completed community service in lieu of payment) can get their voting rights restored.
That said, voting eligibility can still be a challenge to figure out because there is no centralized database with that information. But there are a few avenues to explore.
Through the Department of State, fill out a Felon Eligibility Opinion Request form, then email it to the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of State or send it regular mail to R.A. Gray Building, 500 South Bronough St., Ste. 100, Tallahassee, FL 32399.
Office of Community Corrections, (850) 717-3444 and the Formerly Incarcerated Convicted People & Families Movement’s “Can I Vote?” tool may help returning citizens determine if they can vote in the midterm elections.
You can also contact the Orange County Clerk of Court for records demonstrating eligibility. For offenses committed in other Florida counties, find a list of Clerks here.
For a Florida federal felony conviction, contact the Clerk of the Court of the applicable district court:
Northern District (850) 435-8440)
Middle District (904) 549-1900)
Southern District (305) 523-5100)
Through the court-ordered Financial Obligation Unit, contact Jeanne Worthington, (850) 412-2590
A provisional ballot is what they hand you if the poll worker is not sure you’re eligible to vote — perhaps the system says you were sent a mail ballot but you never received it or your name doesn’t appear on the registry or your wallet was lost with your identification. Provisional ballots, according to the ACLU Florida, are held separately from regular ballots and only get counted if you can show proof of eligibility and you voted in the right precinct. Voters who have voted provisional ballots have until 5 p.m. on Nov. 5 to submit proof of eligibility to the Supervisor of Elections main office.
Voter fraud is rare, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. However, Thursday, 20 people were arrested in Palm Beach for voting illegally — 16 were not U.S. citizens, allegedly claiming they were in order to register to vote; four were felons who had not completed their probation, according to News Collaborative of Central Florida partner WKMG-News 6.
If it’s determined that you were eligible to vote, then the Canvassing Board compares signatures on the provisional ballot paperwork with the voter rolls to determine if the ballot will be counted. About 30 days after the election the elections supervisor should be able to tell you if the provisional ballot was counted, according to the ACLU Florida.
If you experience harassment at the polls; if you are not permitted to vote, you can contact the National Election Protection Hotline and let them know what’s happening.
_____________________________________
Jessica Fuller contributed reporting.
