Check here to see how the House and Senate candidates in your district rate.

You may have heard the news about the President expressing concern over “absentee ballots.” We should all be concerned about an honest election. We should all do our part to make sure every vote gets counted.

Absentee ballots were traditionally used for disabled or sick shut-ins, those who would be traveling on election day, or another similar reason. Some states require you to state the reason why you are requesting the absentee ballot. In Florida, it is easy and fast to request a ballot by mail.

For the last two decades, Florida has transformed the absentee ballot into the VOTE BY MAIL campaign. Republican campaigns have successfully used the Vote-by-Mail campaign to assure victories around the state. Those mail-in ballots from the Republican faithful made the difference in race after race. The Democrats caught wind of the strategy – the banking of votes by assuring your folks vote-by-mail, and implemented their own campaigns to sign people up to vote-by-mail.

The number of vote-by-mail ballots has steadily increased in previous elections and our Supervisors of Elections have met the challenge. Each county elects their own Supervisor of Elections to ensure elections run smoothly and votes are counted fairly.

Mail-in ballots have special rules on how to return the ballot to assure your vote gets counted. Sounds simple, right? Each election many ballots don’t get counted. Ballots must arrive at the Supervisors office before the end of the day on Election Day. In previous elections, votes didn’t get counted because the mail didn’t have enough postage or simply didn’t get mailed in on time.

President Trump is right to be concerned about absentee ballots. In many states, absentee ballots are not as common as they are in Florida. Record numbers of ballots will be returned by mail and those states may not have the resources to count them promptly. Even Florida officials expect record numbers of vote-by-mail ballots to be returned this year.

Vote-by-mail ballots have been used by unscrupulous people to compromise the vote by encouraging shut-ins to vote a certain way or filling out the ballot for someone in a nursing home and then have the voter just sign it. That stuff happens, but it is rare.

My concern this year is about the postal service and the sheer volume of mail moving. In Coronaville, the postal service is overwhelmed. We have a new Postmaster General, more people are ordering online, stores are shipping more than ever, and some people are really scared to physically go to the polls.

That could be the perfect storm in November when the stakes are the highest.

How do we assure our vote-by-mail ballot is counted? Send it in early. Don’t wait until the last week to mail your ballot back to the Supervisor’s office. We’ve done a complete review of the Florida State House and Senate races. You can find the results on our webpage. Just search for your House or Senate number to find out how the candidates on your ballot responded.

If you still have your mail-in ballot in your hand on August 18th, take it with you to your regular polling location. The clerk on-site will take the absentee ballot and let you cast a regular ballot.