The voter registration deadline is Monday for the Aug. 20 primary election in Florida. l Element5 Digital via Unsplash.
Published on July 19, 2024 at 3:15 pm
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The deadline to register to vote or change your party affiliation before the Aug. 20 primary election in Florida is coming up Monday.
Florida is a closed primary state, meaning that voters can vote only in the political contests that match the party they are registered with. That means Democrats may vote only for Democratic candidates and Republicans may vote only for Republican candidates.
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If a voter is registered to vote with what the state considers a minor party or they have no parfty affiliation, they can vote only in nonpartisan contests during this election.
Clay County Supervisor of Elections Chris Chambless said Monday’s deadline is especially important for new state residents.
“Voting is a state right, and states get to choose and design how it’s going to be conducted, and if you come from a state that has different requirements than the state in which you now live, it’s vitally important that you educate yourself as to that process,” Chambless said.
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According to figures from the state Legislature, Florida’s population grew 5.1% from the 2020 census to April 1, 2023. Duval County was one of the top five counties in the state for population growth, adding 55,711 people during that time.
For organizations like the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, educating new potential voters about registering is a year-round effort. The organization is a nonpartisan nonprofit that helps to empower everyone to participate in a democracy.
Lanelle Phillmon is the organization’s local chapter president. She said her organization has been focused primarily on reaching out to residents affected by a 2023 legal change regarding third-party voter registration organizations.
The law increased maximum penalties against third-party voter registration organizations to a maximum of $250,000 for not delivering or delaying delivery of a voter’s registration application to a supervisor of elections office.
“We knew that a lot of folks were not going to be handling paper applications as much as they were in the past because of that law,” Phillmon said. “So we really started doing a lot of outreach to folks who would typically use a third-party organization to register.”
Those groups include low-income individuals, people who don’t trust technology and people whose first language is not English.
In response to the law, the League of Women Voters agreed to no longer collect paper voting applications.
Phillmon said the law did not change the spirit the group has for outreach.
She suggests that the easiest way to register before Monday’s deadline is to use the state’s website, RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov. Voters also can fill out paper applications at local libraries and at their supervisor of elections office.
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is also approaching. Voters must file a new ballot request for every general election year due to recent changes in election laws.
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot before the Aug. 20 primary election is 5 p.m. Aug. 8. Requesting a mail-in ballot also can be done through your local supervisor of elections office.
Here are links to supervisor of elections offices in Northeast Florida:
