MARION COUNTY, FL (352today.com) – It’s almost time for us to do our duty as members of a democratic society, and vote it up real good.
There are basically three ways to cast your ballot in the 352: Early voting, voting in person on Election Day, and mail-in voting.
There’s been a whole lot of coverage and social media chatter questioning the security and validity of mail-in ballots during the run-up to this year’s midterm general election, but most credible sources report that the process is solid. If you mail in a ballot and it gets there before 7 p.m. on Election Day, it will be treated like any other ballot.
(You can also drop your mail-in ballot off at any nearby Secure Ballot Intake Station—for instance, all of the early voting locations in Marion County also function as Secure Ballot Intake Stations.)
In Florida you do not have to qualify or give a reason for requesting a mail-in ballot; any registered Florida voter can opt to vote by mail. But voting by mail requires paying a little more attention to the calendar than voting on Election Day or voting early.
For one thing, the deadline for requesting a mail-in ballot from a Supervisor of Elections in the Sunshine State is always 5 p.m. on the 12th day before the election, and that’s tomorrow: Thursday, October 22, 2026. For another, if mail-in voters don’t want to have to file an affidavit in order to ensure their ballot will be counted, they need to get their ballots in the mail in plenty of time to reach the Supervisor of Elections in their county before 7 p.m. on Election Day; most supervisors of elections recommend a week, which means mail-in voters should put their ballots in the post by Oct. 28.
If anyone has any specific questions about the mail-in process, their county’s Supervisor of Elections website can be a treasure trove of knowledge; the Florida Department of State’s election pages are also a great source of factual information.
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