Make sure your mail-in ballot counts

Voting by mail is convenient, but you must plan ahead and follow instructions to make sure your vote counts.

 

There are two major mistakes that will prevent your vote from being counted.

 

receive their mail-in ballot, without a postmark, by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 5. Mail-in ballots that arrive after 7:00 p.m. are never opened. They are simply locked away. There were more than 800 mail-in ballots that were not counted in the August 20 primary election because they did not arrive by the deadline.

 

To prevent this from happening, you must mail your completed ballot no later than October 28th (preferably before). Alternatively, you can drop it off at any of the 29 early voting locations in Broward County. These locations will be open from October 21st through November 3rd from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. To find an early voting location, please refer to this document: https://www.browardvotes.gov/Portals/Broward/Documents/2024elections/ev-locations-general-election-spanish.pdf 

 

A mail-in ballot cannot be dropped off at a precinct on Election Day. There are no collection boxes at any precinct on Election Day. However, you can exchange your mail-in ballot for a new ballot and vote in person. However, if you have mail-in ballots from family members, those ballots cannot be dropped off at the precinct. You will need to take them to specific drop-off locations (see bottom third of the document linked above) or your family member will need to vote in person.

 

The second most common error that can prevent a mail-in ballot from being counted is related to your signature, either because you do not have a signature or because your signature does not match the Supervisor of Elections' records. You must sign the outer return envelope in the space provided!

 

A common reason for signature mismatches is when a household receives multiple mail-in ballots. The ballots may be the same, but they must be in the correct return envelope. Look for your name (in small print) on the return envelope!

 

That's why it's so important to include an email address or phone number on the return envelope. If there's a problem, the Supervisor of Elections office can contact you to correct the error and then count your vote.

 

If you have not yet requested a mail-in ballot, you have until 5 p.m. on October 24 to do so.