SARASOTA-MANATEE (WSNN) – The coronavirus pandemic is forcing many to turn to vote-by-mail for the first time, but is it secure?
The election chiefs from Sarasota and Manatee Counties say more than 100,000 people from each county have already requested mail-in ballots ahead of the primaries. Sarasota County’s vote-by-mail ballot request of over 120,000 is a single-election record.
It’s important to note if you are casting a ballot by mail all your information need to be up to date, down to the way you do your signature
“We check every signature on those ballots to make sure that its coming from the voter,” Sarasota’s Supervisor of Elections, Ron Turner, said. “The ballot is only mailed to the address on the voter’s record. If they want it to go to another address, they have to provide that address to us in writing, they can’t call us and change the address.”
But what about the concerns over vote-by-mail fraud?
“Voter fraud in Manatee County especially is kind of like a myth, we really don’t face it in Manatee County,” Manatee County’s Supervisor of Elections, Michael Bennett said.
But, President Trump tweeted last week, “Glad I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting (not Absentee Voting, which I totally support!).”
Sarasota’s Supervisor of Elections tells SNN there’s confusion in the terminology as different states have different rules.
“Even though we have a federal election like the presidential election, those elections are run by the state,” Supervisor Turner said. “So each state makes its own election laws and rules and things, including having different terms for certain things. So, vote by mail or early voting in different states things have different meanings. In Florida however, Vote by mail and absentee mean the exact same thing.”
An absentee ballot is generally used when voters cannot physically make it to a voting location on Election Day.
In Florida, absentee ballots or vote-by-mail ballots are only sent to voters upon request.
In Manatee County, bar codes on ballots identify who you are and that you have sent it back.
“When we process those, you can go online and see that we’ve received it, you can go online and verify when we processed it,” Supervisor Bennett said. “So our system in Florida is not set up for fraud if you well, and the delays that other states have had. And so, unfortunately we’re getting some bad press over it.”
Vote-by-mail has been growing substantially over the years regardless of COVID-19.
“When I got here 8 years ago, we were at 30,000,” Supervisor Bennett said. “And we’re hoping by November, we’ll be up to by about 125 or close to that.”
“Before COVID, we were already anticipating probably 100,000 at least voting by mail in the general election,” Supervisor Turner said. “So this really isn’t a new thing, it’s tried and tested.”
On Tuesday, President Trump seemed to change course on just how safe and secure the system is and tweeted, “Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail!”
Bennett encourages people to mail in their ballots at least a week in advance
“What we are concerned about is will the U.S. Post Office be able to handle the influx of all the vote-by-mail ballots that are floating around out there?”
Since he says there may be fewer post office workers due to the virus.
Early voting begins on Saturday, August 8th.
If you plan to vote by mail, the last day to request a ballot is on Saturday, August 8th at 5 pm.
