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photo of Dana Southerland, Supervisor of Elections
Hamilton County Supervisor of Elections, Laura Hutto

Voters Vote by Mail

Requesting Your Ballot

The deadline to submit a request for a ballot to be mailed to you is 5 P.M. local time on the 12th day before the election. Any registered voter can submit a request to vote by mail. Whether you plan to be in town or out of town on Election Day, we’ll send your ballot wherever you need it to be. Just make sure to let us know if your mailing address changes. We keep the most recent mailing address on file for all of our correspondence with you. Florida law requires us to cancel your Vote-by-Mail ballot request when any first-class or non-forwardable mail from us is returned as undeliverable.

Ways to Request a Mail Ballot

Request a Mail Ballot for Yourself

To request to vote by mail for yourself, you must provide:

  • Your name and home address
  • Your date of birth
  • Your mailing address for ballot. If the ballot delivery address is not currently on file in the FL Voter Registration Systems, the address must be in writing and be signed by the voter using the DS-DE 160 Statewide Vote-by-Mail form. UOCAVA citizens are exempt from this requirement. To meet this requirement, please download, fil out, print, and sign the Statewide Vote-by-Mail Ballot Request form. Then return the form to the Supervisor of Elections office.
  • Your Florida Driver License number, Florida ID number, or the last four digits of your Social Security Number, whichever may be verified in our records
  • Your signature (if the request is written)
Request a Mail Ballot for Someone Else

You are allowed to request a Vote By Mail ballot for yourself or for an immediate family member. Immediate family members include your spouse, and the parent, child, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of you or your spouse.

To request to vote by mail for someone else, you must provide:

  • The name of the voter for whom the ballot is requested
  • The voter’s address
  • The voter’s date of birth
  • The voter’s Florida Driver License number, the voter’s Florida identification card number, or the last four digits of the voter’s social security number, whichever may be verified in our records
  • The requester’s name
  • The requester’s address
  • The requester’s driver license number, identification card number, or the last four digits of the requester’s social security number, if available
  • The requestor’s relationship to the voter
  • Requester’s signature (if the request is written)

Returning Your Ballot

Your Vote-By-Mail ballot will include instructions on the proper way to mark and return your ballot. Read those instructions carefully. If you are filling out your Vote-by-Mail ballot and you make a mistake, let us know. Whether voting by mail or at the polling place, voters can receive up to two replacement ballots before their ballot has been cast. Once the ballot has been mailed to our office, dropped in a ballot box, or inserted into a ballot scanning machine, your ballot has been cast, and no replacements can be issued.

You must sign the return envelope, and we must receive your Vote By Mail ballot no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day for your ballot to count. If you plan to mail your ballot back to us, you should allow at least a week for your ballot to reach our office no later than 7:00 PM on election day. You can drop your voted ballot off in person using our secure ballot intake station located at our office, available during Early Voting hours and regular office hours.

If you change your mind after receiving your ballot and decide you want to vote in person instead, that’s okay. You should bring the ballot (marked or unmarked) to the polls to turn the ballot in to be cancelled and vote a regular ballot. If you do not bring the ballot to the polls for whatever reason, the Supervisor of Elections’ office will need to confirm that the ballot has not already been returned and received. If the ballot has not been received, you will be allowed to vote a regular ballot. If the ballot has been received, the ballot is deemed cast and you to have voted. If you believe the office is incorrect for whatever reason, you are allowed to vote a provisional ballot. The matter will then be presented to the canvassing board for determination. If it cannot be determined if the ballot has been received, you will be allowed to vote a provisional ballot. See section 101.69, Fla. Stat.

Your Signature

When we receive your ballot, we check your signature against the signature we have on file. If your signature has changed, you can use an online voter registration application to bring your Florida Driver License or Florida ID signature into your voter record, or a paper voter registration application to update your signature. Your signature update must be received before your voted Vote-by-Mail ballot is received.

Curing a Mail Ballot

If you returned your Vote-by-Mail ballot but forgot to sign the envelope, or if there is a discrepancy with your signature, you need to complete and return a Signature Cure Affidavit (English PDF/Español PDF) via email, mail, fax or hand delivery so that it is in one of our offices no later than 5 p.m. on the second day following the election. Please follow the instructions on the form carefully, as failure to follow these instructions may cause your ballot not to count.

Vote-by-Mail Cure Affidavit

Designating Someone to Pick Up Your Ballot

If you can’t get to a voting location, you can designate someone to pick up a Vote-by-Mail ballot for you. The designation must be authorized in writing. The earliest a designee can pick up your ballot is 9 days before Election Day. A designee is limited to picking up Vote-by-Mail ballots for two other voters per election, not including their own ballot and the ballots for immediate family members. Immediate family members include the spouse, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of the designee or designee’s spouse. The designee must present valid ID and submit an affidavit (English PDF/ Español PDF) to pick-up the voter’s blank ballot. This affidavit is a combination form that includes the affidavit for ballot pick-up, the voter’s written authorization for the designee and, if a request is not already on record, the voter’s request for a Vote-by-Mail ballot.

On Election Day, you have to complete the Election Day Vote-by-Mail Ballot Delivery Affidavit (English PDF/Español PDF) to affirm that an emergency is keeping you from being able to vote in your assigned polling place.