Orange County Supervisor of Elections says mail-in ballot requests at ‘all-time high’

On July 30, the President posted a tweet questioning the security of mail-in voting and suggested delaying the Nov. 3 election “until people can properly, securely and safely vote.”

Bill Cowles, the Orange County Supervisor of Elections, noted that the U.S. Constitution and the states are responsible for election procedures.

“We have to remember that the U.S. Constitution sets the date for the Nov. general election,” Cowles said. “Then after that, they leave it up to the 50 states to write their own state laws and their own state procedures.”

Upon dissecting the President’s comments, Cowles says the issue may be that the President is not in favor of states that are automatically sending ballots to every voter, or states that are sending request forms to all voters. Florida does not do blanket mailing.

On the issue of mail-in voting, Cowles says that Orange County has already received almost 35,000 returned ballots.

“We’re already into the vote-by-mail process and we are seeing significant increases in our vote-by mail requests for our primary election, but I really think most people are doing it in anticipation of the Nov. 3 general election,” Cowles said. “We are already at an all-time high with those ballots.”

According to Cowles, mail-in voting is a secure process. There have been attempts to document the amount of fraud with the most favorable number concerning documented and prosecuted fraud is as low as 0.000025%.

“A lot of what we do in elections is perception and a lot of times people have perceptions of what is right and what is wrong,” Cowles said. “So, on the vote-by-mail, my message to a voter is take your personal responsibility.”

Voters who are planning on voting by mail must request a ballot by Aug. 8. Mail-in ballots will use their signature to serve as their form of identification. Cowles advises voters to make sure that their signature is up-to-date with their elections office.

“Bottom line, almost every county in FL has a tracking system on their website where you can find the date you made the request, it’ll give you the date we mailed the ballot out, and it will give you the date your ballot was returned,” Cowles said. “Then it’ll say if your ballot is in the accepted category, which means it’s going to be counted.”

For voters that are planning to go to their polling place, Cowles assures that Orange County has put all necessary measures in place that are in compliance with current CDC guidelines. These include plexiglass shields as the check-in stations, hand sanitizer, wipes and disinfectant spray. Cowles also states that while masks are encouraged, no voter will be turned away if they’re not wearing a mask.

“Voting is a right given to them by the Constitution and we’re not going to turn away any voter who wants to vote in this election,” Cowles said. “We will have extra masks for them and we will ask them to wear one, but they don’t have to.”

Early voting begins on Aug. 3 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and ends on Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is at 5 p.m. on Aug. 8.

The polls will be open on Election Day Aug. 18 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

For more information on the election and the coronavirus procedures, visit. https://www.ocfelections.com/.