Florida can reduce costs and increase voter convenience by expanding its permanent absentee voting list, on which voters can sign up to automatically be sent an absentee ballot for each election without having to re-apply. Expanding Florida’s permanent absentee option by making the list truly permanent, rather than for just one year, would save the state significant expenses by cutting down on the requests it needs to process.

Paying for prepaid postage is a voter-centric reform that removes a financial barrier to the vote. While Florida has encouraged counties to pay postage for ballots, we encourage the state to pay postage for future elections.

Florida’s data infrastructure would be further improved by implementing automatic and same day voter registration. In addition, Florida has a great opportunity to reach for the gold standard of post-election security by implementing risk limiting audits.

Creating an online portal for all voters to request an absentee ballot not only makes it much more convenient for voters, it also would be a boon to election officials. Currently, only some counties offer such a system. A statewide system could be built to feed directly into the county voter registration systems to help verify addresses, collect contact information, and to remove administrative steps (and costs!) to process a large amount of requests. We encourage an integrated process that allows new voters to register, current voters to make changes to their address and make requests for ballots in a seamless manner.

Expanding accepting of ballots with Election Day postmarks received shortly after election day is a best practice to ensure that voters are given all options to vote their ballot in a timely manner, and one that Florida already follows: Florida already offers postmark acceptance for military and overseas voters. Accepting Election Day postmarks is estimated in most jurisdictions to decrease ballot rejection rates by half.

Ballot tracking software such as Ballot Scout or Ballot TRACE can be a very cost effective tool to improve Florida’s current ballot tracking and increase voter confidence. It also adds a layer of data for the elections office and serves as another modality to contact voters if there is a signature mismatch or deficiency on their return envelope. An expanded notification system helps keep rejection rates low and increases voter confidence and participation.

Drop boxes reduce strain on the postal system, and are sometimes a preferred method by voters who want an extra bit of reassurance that their ballot makes it to the elections office on time. Florida already has drop boxes and Board of Elections ballot drop off. Adding voting centers and polling place drop off would further lessen the reliance on the postal service and increase voter convenience and confidence. In addition, repealing the provision in S 90 that requires that drop boxes be monitored at all times would make drop boxes more accessible to voters by allowing them to be open for more hours.

Drop boxes reduce strain on the postal system, and are sometimes a preferred method by voters who want an extra bit of reassurance that their ballot makes it to the elections office on time. Florida already has drop boxes and Board of Elections ballot drop off. Adding voting centers and polling place drop off would further lessen the reliance on the postal service and increase voter convenience and confidence. In addition, repealing the provision in S 90 that requires that drop boxes be monitored at all times would make drop boxes more accessible to voters by allowing them to be open for more hours.