Early voting ended Sunday in Seminole County, and with it went the secure drop boxes at the early voting sites. That leaves voters who still have an unreturned mail ballot with two ways to make sure it counts, after the county's elections chief reported unusual delays in mail delivery this fall.
Where a ballot can go now
To be counted, a mail ballot must reach the Seminole elections office no later than 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, and a postmark does not count, according to the office.
- Hand it in at the elections office, 1500 E. Airport Blvd. in Sanford. Regular office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, according to the office's website, and the office takes mail ballots until polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
- Bring it to your polling place on Tuesday, surrender it there and vote a regular ballot instead, as WKMG News 6 explained. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and voters need photo and signature identification.
A family member can drop off a voter's ballot, and someone outside the family can return no more than two besides their own, WKMG reported. Ballots must be returned in the county where the voter lives. Voters can confirm whether a ballot already reached the office and was accepted at TrackMyMailBallot.org, which the office links from voteseminole.gov.
The delays
Supervisor of Elections Amy Pennock told WKMG her office had sent out more than 500 replacement ballots to voters whose originals never arrived. In one case, she said, a ballot took seven days to travel from her office in Sanford to a home in the same city.
Her staff fields 20 or more calls daily about ballot status, plus about as many emails, she said, calling it "one of the largest problems that we have experienced so far this election."
Pennock said she had not yet talked with the Postal Service. "Once we deliver the ballots to the post office for delivery, we don't have control over them," she told the station.
