Fewer Hillsborough Voters Are Choosing Mail Ballots as Florida's New Rule Trips Up Longtime Users

Hillsborough County's elections office sent out its first batch of domestic mail-in ballots this week for the November 3 election, with about 149,000 voters expected to receive one. But fewer people are actually using them. Turnout data shows mail voting here has dropped sharply since its pandemic-era peak, and a Florida law change may be part of the reason.

In the August gubernatorial primary, 91,141 Hillsborough County voters returned mail ballots. Four years earlier, when the governor's race was also on the primary ballot, that number was 122,026. Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer says the decline follows a spike in mail voting during the pandemic, when the county sent out 400,000 ballots at its height.

"It's steadily dropped off," Latimer said of the numbers since then.

USF political science professor Kirsten England says the shift is part of a national pattern. More voters nationwide are choosing early in-person voting over mail ballots, a trend she says shows up clearly when comparing this year's primary to the 2022 primary. But there's also a Florida-specific wrinkle: a change in state law now requires voters to request a mail ballot fresh for each election cycle, rather than staying on a standing list for multiple elections.

England says that rule could be quietly costing the county mail voters, especially older residents who assume they're still signed up because they voted by mail before and never got a notice saying otherwise.

Voters can request a ballot online or by calling the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office. The county has already started receiving ballots back from overseas voters, who tend to request and return earlier in the cycle; by Friday evening the office had logged about 350 of those.

What's on the ballot

This isn't a sleepy midterm for Hillsborough voters. Along with statewide and local races, the November ballot includes a renewal of the school district's half-cent sales tax, the "half-penny" that has funded air-conditioning replacements, school construction, security upgrades and other capital repairs since voters first approved it in 2018. The district is asking to extend the same rate, not raise it, for another 10 years starting in 2029, and officials have estimated it would bring in roughly $121 million to $131 million a year for building repairs and safety projects. The tax cannot be used to pay salaries or cover everyday classroom budgets.

That makes the mail-ballot numbers more than a voting-method trivia point. A ballot that arrives late, or never gets requested because a voter assumed their old request still stood, is a ballot that doesn't get counted on a measure that affects every public school building in the county.

For voters who'd rather skip the guesswork altogether, early in-person voting remains an option and, according to the county's own numbers, is the one more people are choosing anyway. The elections office has not yet released this cycle's early-voting dates and site list, but those details typically post on the county's election page in the weeks ahead of November 3.

Anyone who already requested a mail ballot for this cycle doesn't need to do anything else but watch the mailbox and return it promptly. Anyone who hasn't, and wants one, has until October 22 to ask.

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