Florida begins receiving mail ballots as voting gets underway for 2026 midterm election

Florida election officials have begun receiving the first mail ballots for the November general election, kicking off a voting period expected to draw roughly 8 million voters statewide.About 150 ballots had been returned as of Monday from nearly 200,000 sent last week to military and overseas voters, according to figures from the Florida Division of Elections. Florida's deadline for counties to send ballots to those voters was Sept. 19, while ballots for domestic voters must be mailed between Sept. 24 and Oct. 1. Election Day is Nov. 3."I encourage voters who are voting by mail to track their ballot and sign up for notifications, so they know when we mail their ballot out and when we receive it back in our office," Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer said in a statement Friday. "Most mail takes about a week to reach its destination."Hillsborough County sent 2,721 general election ballots to military and overseas voters and plans to mail more than 146,000 ballots